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This writing cabinet is among the finest of its type known. Inside and out, nearly every surface is covered with intricate marquetry panels and incised designs. The outside features a panoramic view of Villa Alta de San Ildefonso, a town in southern Mexico, and the surrounding highlands of Oaxaca; the inside boasts a dazzling mix of imagery borrowed and adapted from European prints. It was probably commissioned around 1671 by Villa Alta’s Spanish administrator Don Fernando Velasco y Castilla. A contemporary visitor reported that such fine furniture was made by indigenous craftsmen in the nearby neighborhood of Analco, shown on the side of the desk, and “exported as far away as Italy, both for the unusual nature of the marquetry and for the beauty and fragrance of the wood.”
View: Closed
Escritorio (writing desk)
about 1671
Object Place: Villa Alta de San Ildefonso, Oaxaca, Mexico
Medium/Technique
Linaloe, granadillo, Spanish cedar, with marquetry and zulaque-filled engraving
Dimensions
Overall (Writing desk): 63.1 x 105 x 45.1 cm (24 13/16 x 41 5/16 x 17 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously, William Francis Warden Fund, American Decorative Arts Deaccession Fund, Arthur Tracy Cabot Fund, Edwin E. Jack Fund, and by exchange from a Gift of Harold Whitworth Pierce, Gift of Miss Ellen Graves, Mr. Samuel Cabot and Mrs. Roger Ernst in memory of their father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Graves, Gift of Mary W. Bartol, John W. Bartol, and Abigail W. Clark, William E. Nickerson Fund, Gift of Mrs. Henry Lyman, Bequest of Barbara Boylston Bean, Charles Amos Cummings Fund, Gift of Mrs. Charles L. Bybee, Bequest of Dudley Leavitt Pickman, Gift of Henry G. E. Payson, and from funds donated by Mrs. Walter Hunnewell in memory of Walter Hunnewell
Accession Number2010.370
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsFurniture – Case furniture and boxes
This writing cabinet is among the finest of its type known. Inside and out, nearly every surface is covered with intricate marquetry panels and incised designs. The outside features a panoramic view of Villa Alta de San Ildefonso, a town in southern Mexico, and the surrounding highlands of Oaxaca; the inside boasts a dazzling mix of imagery borrowed and adapted from European prints. It was probably commissioned around 1671 by Villa Alta’s Spanish administrator Don Fernando Velasco y Castilla. A contemporary visitor reported that such fine furniture was made by indigenous craftsmen in the nearby neighborhood of Analco, shown on the side of the desk, and “exported as far away as Italy, both for the unusual nature of the marquetry and for the beauty and fragrance of the wood.”
ProvenanceThought to have been owned originally by Don Fernando Luis Altamirano de Velasco Legazpi y Albornoz, third count of Santiago de Calimaya, who served as alcalde mayor (mayor) of Villa Alta de San Ildefonso in 1671–2. By 1970, private collection, France [1]; 2007, anonymous (private collection) sale, Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 13 June 2007, lot 154, to Alexander di Carcaci Ltd; 2008, sold by Alexander di Carcaci Ltd, London, to Carlton Hobbs LLC, London; 2010, sold by Carlton Hobbs LLC, New York, to the MFA.
Notes:
[1] Letter from Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 29 January 2010, states that the desk was in France by at least 1970, in the possession of a family residing in the Paris region.
Notes:
[1] Letter from Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 29 January 2010, states that the desk was in France by at least 1970, in the possession of a family residing in the Paris region.