Dalva Brothers Antiques, Antique Furniture, New York

French 18th century furniture, clocks, lighting, paintings, porcelain, sculpture and tapestries

Large North German baroque carved and veneered walnut cabinet. The two doors are richly carved with allegorical figures such as Justice (with a sword and scales), Charity (holding a nest where a mother pelican is feeding the nestlings with her own blood), and Prudence (with a mirror and a snake) arranged around an unusual faceted diamond shaped cartouche. A female figure on an outside pilaster portrays a woman holding an anchor, probably a reference to the commerce of one of the Baltic trading cities Hamburg or Danzig. The piece is crested with a male figure astride a lion; the lion is found on the Danzig coat of arms. [Raised on later hexagonal bun feet. Some small pieces of the sculpture are missing.]

The piece has an old painted inventory mark in the interior: “#6 IR”, as well as a later inventory mark: “PPI - 166”. There is also part of a paper label identifying the cabinet as a “Danziger Kass” and an indecipherable name, possibly an owner

A seemingly identical cabinet, possibly the pendant, carved with different allegorical figures and with the female crest figure facing in the opposite direction, is in the Collezione Pollitzer in Trieste. Illustrated: Mobili Tedeschi; Gorlich, Milan, 1969. Page 69