When this cabinet on stand appeared in the inventory of a Gloucestershire home in the 1920s it was described simply as ‘An old Italian Cabinet of ebony and Tortoiseshell’. In fact, it is Flemish rather than Italian and was probably made in Antwerp in the first half of the 17th century.
Antwerp was the leading centre for the manufacture of cabinets such as this. It was supplied with ebony from Cadiz and other Spanish ports and with oil paintings by the many talented artists living in the city as members of the Guild of St Luke.
Dealers played an important part in their sale: the best known being the family business of Melchior Forchondt the Elder (d.1633) who turned an ebony workshop into an international art and luxury goods enterprise. The business records across three generations of the Forchondt family firm still survive.