CABINET WITH ENGRAVED EFFIGIES of the Princes... Lot 52

CABINET WITH ENGRAVED EFFIGIES of the Princes of Orange-Nassau, the Prince-Electors of Bavaria and the Holy Roman Emperor Germany, mid 17th century Oak frame, stamped leather, iron and brass; old engravings H. 35 cm, W. 58 cm, D. 45 cm This cabinet with many secrets, rectangular in shape, with an oak frame covered with stamped leather and studded with stylized flowers and arabesques hammered with small nails, is held by wrought iron side handles. It opens in front of two pivoting leaves, revealing an interior lined with gilded leather with small iron, arranged with a central sliding locker surrounded by two symmetrical groups of three small drawers equipped with small rings of pulling. The flap opens onto a magnificent and rich decoration of stamped and gilded leather with nine compartments imitating book bindings. The cover plate, made of stamped leather with gilding, is decorated with two medallion portraits representing Wilhelmus II A Nassau / Princeps Aurausionem Stum etc. and Albertina A Nassau, Uxer Guiljelmi Frederici, Baroni Frisae, etc. William II of Nassau (The Hague, 1626-1650), Prince of Orange, was stadhouder of the United Provinces from 1647. The engraving by Hugo Allard the Elder (1634-1687), dated about 1650-1680, shows him posthumously with his coat of arms (fi g. 1). The other medallion depicts his sister Albertine-Agnès de Nassau (1634-1696), wife of William Frederick and baroness of Friesland. It reproduces the portrait of her by the famous Utrecht painter Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656). They are surrounded by a colourful engraving of a sovereign in hussar's uniform, most probably Joseph II of Austria (1741-1790), who ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1764. The costume is reminiscent of the official portrait of the Emperor engraved by Johann Gott fried Haid (1710-1776) in the third quarter of the 18th century (fig. 2). The flap reveals a cover with black and white engravings. Two equestrian portraits accompany a banqueting scene in which a couple have retired behind a tree and are about to munch on the fruit on the branches held out to them by a monkey and a little Amur. The coat of arms easily identifies Maximilian-Henri of Bavaria (München, 1621-Bonn, 1688), who was elected Prince-Archbishop-Elector of Cologne in 1650, and Ferdinand Marie of Witt elsbach (München, 1636-Schleissheim, 1679), who became Prince-Elector of Bavaria in 1651. The two portraits presented here were engraved by Johann Jakob Schollenberg (1647-1699) in the second half of the 17th century (fi g. 3-4). This collection of portraits of the princes and princesses of Nassau and Bavaria, gathered around the figure of Emperor Joseph II, must have been assembled later and added to the original decoration of our cabinet. The owner of the cabinet in the mid-18th century was most likely a prominent member of the Habsburg court in Vienna. The allegory of taste engraved by Jeremiasz Falck (1610?-1677), which accompanies the equestrian portraits, humorously develops a nuptial theme (fi g. 5). Our cabinet may have originally served as a chest of drawers for a princess of Nassau. William II and Albertine had a brother and six sisters.