17th Century Italian Cabinet

Exceptional cabinet in veneered wood: ebony, blackened pear wood, engraved decoration on ivory and bone plates. It opens with fourteen drawers in four rows. On each side of the central door six drawers, four small and two large, whose notched double-peg locks allow the whole to be locked. The drawer above the door is decorated with a balustrade, a lateral decoration of fruit garlands. The drawer fronts are framed with wavy or guilloche moldings, they are finely engraved with different bucolic scenes: birds, plant motifs, fruits, bees, butterflies, snails, dog, fox, deer, rabbits ... Small turned ivory handle knobs. The central part opens with a door revealing an interior with five drawers nicely engraved with animals hunting on a landscape background. In the center of the door an engraved decoration symbolizing the goddess Diana, it is framed by columns, surmounted by masks and angels supporting a coat of arms. The plain sides are in blackened pear veneer wood. The cabinet is topped with a cornice and fitted at the base with the same guilloche molding. It rests on four small ebony ball feet. The interiors of the drawers are in resinous wood, the buttons and locks are original, the keys are later. Excellent condition for this rare Italian cabinet (probably Northern Italy) from the second half of the 17th century.