KUNSTSCHRANK CABINET, SOUTH GERMANY, FIRST HALF OF THE 17th CENTURY Attributed to Matthias Walbaum In ebony, ebony veneer and ivory inlay, decorated on all sides, the slightly domed lid revealing an interior lined with crimson silk velvet and fitted with eighteen compartments, the architectural front and sides adorned with niches set in arcades and punctuated by columns, The interior features fifteen drawers, four of which are secret drawers around a central leaf. The waistband opens with two drawers, one of which reveals a writing desk, and rests on flattened ball feet; restorations, traces of old silver mounts now missing H. 47 cm (18 ½ in.) l. 74 cm (29 in.) P. 36.5 cm (14¼ in.) Provenance: Private collection, Île-de-France. A Southern German ebony and ivory inlaid cabinet, first half of the 17th century, attributed to Matthias Walbaum *Marketing authorization within the European Union. *Authorisation to sell within the EU. * Information for buyers : When leaving the EU, a CITES re-export certificate may be required, at the expense of the future buyer. * Information to buyers: For an exit from the EU, a CITES re-export certificate will be necessary, at the buyer's expense. By 1600, Augsburg had become a major cabinet-making center in southern Germany. These cabinets were often made of ebony and ivory, with gilded bronze, silver or vermeil mounts. Given the value of these materials, they were considered treasures for princes and the high aristocracy. Some were also the subject of diplomatic gifts, which already contained other treasures in their drawers, both from the natural world -naturalia-, such as corals, shells, stones and animals, and from craftsmanship -artificialia-, such as turned ivory, goldsmiths, clockmakers and jewellers. The consuls of Augsburg donated a cabinet full of treasures to Swedish King Gustavus Aldolphus (now housed at Uppsala University), and every high-ranking dignitary of the day was expected to have his own cabinet of curiosities, demonstrating the erudition of its owner. Collections of this type were highly prized from 1570 onwards, and were mostly reserved for princes, such as the Duke of Pomerania, for whom Baumgartner father and son delivered one in 1617, now no longer in existence (see fig. 1), and Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany, whose cabinet is now housed in Palazzo Pitti. Augsburg's reputation as a center for the creation of luxury goods was largely due to the talents of the merchant (cf. fig. 2) Phillipp Hainhofer (1578-1647), who propagated this type of cabinet throughout Europe and ensured Augsburg's leading position for the quality of its production. In her book Der Pommersche Kunstschrank des Aubsburger Unternehmers Philipp Hainhofer für den gelehrten Herzog Philipp II von Pommern, Barbara Mundt lists the cabinets produced by Hainhofer. The Pommersche Kunstschrank, the Walbaum-Kabinett in Berlin's Kunstgewerben Museum (cf. fig. 3) (circa 1610-1615) and the cabinet designed for Grand Duchess Marie Madeleine of Tuscany (circa 1611-1613), the latter long since lost, are among the first group of cabinets dating from the first quarter of the 17th century and made entirely of ebony and enriched by rich silver applications. This was followed by creations with gemstone inlays for the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand II (1619-1625), the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus (1628-1632), and finally the cabinet for General Wrangel. In particular, our cabinet is very closely linked to the Walbaum-Kabinett in the Berlin Museum, with which it shares the choice of materials, the overall composition, the rich architectural structure of the facades and the layout of its interior structure (see fig. 4). Traces of an earlier decorative system, comparable to the Walbaum-Kabinett's silver decoration, can be seen beneath the exterior ivory decoration and on the interior facades. We can therefore deduce that the original appearance of our cabinet was also the result of a collaboration between Ulrich Baumgartner and Matthias Walbaum (active 1590-1632), and that it can therefore be associated with the corpus of Hainhofer's first large cabinets. The cabinet's current appearance is characterized by its remarkably fine ivory decoration, which replaced the silver ornamentation. This change in decoration can be dated to around 1620-1625, when the War of 1812 was waged.