Small German Cabinet, Late 16th / Early 17th Century

With this small size, there is no doubt that this cabinet must have seen the world! Easily transportable with its two nicely turned and chiselled iron handles, secured with its small key and its effective lock, this German cabinet has pretty marquetry, geometric, symmetrical, one says sober on its exterior faces. What not to suspect the decor that we discover there by opening it!

Inside, there are drawers and a door that form the landscape of a northern European city with its houses with sloping roofs and its Protestant temples.
On the back of the front of the cabinet, there is a marquetry for a music lover, an allegory of music where drum, lute, bagpipes and horn are brought together, no doubt to play the score contained in the bound book. Such luxury could suggest sacred music…

Was it a musician’s cabinet? No one knows. Nevertheless, nothing prevents it from becoming one thanks to its future owner!