Lot 33. Box, Sicily, Trapani, the second half of the seventeenth century. Estimate 80,000 - 120,000 €. Photo Sotheby's.

copper gold, silver and coral; 16,3x37x23 cm.

Provenance: Walter Padovani, Milan.

Notes: Extremely rare are the specimens come down to us of coral cassettes large, characterized by the sculptural virtuosity and by the contrast of luxurious materials, coral and silver, works of princely origin and executed on aristocratic patronage. 
This toilette box was made of wood and covered with gilded copper with overlapping in coral and silver decorations. The raised rear enables greater visibility to the lid, tilted, it shows itself in all its rich decoration: a silver embossed and engraved frieze decorated with swirls reasons, frames in silver and coral flowers arranged in spirals around a central medallion coral carved in bas-relief depicting a mythological scene. 
the same ornamental pattern repeats in the four side faces, marked the corners with coral eagles with outspread wings and topped with caryatids always in coral and carved in the round. 
the interior is covered with green silk and the reverse of the cover is centered by a mirror framed by ovules in coral in this case retroincastrati. 
the application of corals no longer via the retroincastro technique, but with iron wires and resins (such as the mythological medallions) suggests a date to the second half of the seventeenth century. 
For a comparison, see: the casket of the Schoenborn Conti Collection illustrated by A. Daneu in Trapani the art of coral , Milano 1964, p. 144, pl. XXXIII; the box in the Banco di Sicilia Collection published by E. Tartamella in The Coral Art in Sicily,Palermo 1986, p. 234, tab 141; the preserved tape in a private collection that MC Christmas shows in Splendors of Sicily.Decorative arts from the Renaissance to the Baroque, Milano 2001, p. 494, Nos. 35-36; the three caskets in a private collection on display at the exhibition The large coral masterpieces at Palazzo Valle in Catania, 2013, p. 160, cat. 88; and finally the retained deposit box at the Camillo Leone Museum in Vercelli.

Sotheby's. A Milanese Cabinet Collection, Milan, 13 Jun 2016