The Spanish word taracea (marquetry), deriving from the Arabic word tarsi (to insert/inlay), describes a technique that consists of inlaying pieces of wood, bone or mother-of-pearl into a piece of hardwood, such as walnut. Material evidence confirms that this technique of Eastern origin was widely in use in Islamic Cordoba since at least the 10th century, but it wasn't until the Nasrid period (1232 - 1492) that it reached its full potential. Indeed, under the Nasrids, the technique was to simplified the elaborate geometrically-cut inlays were attached to a base of paper or parchment, and subsequently placed onto the main piece of furniture (Margarita Sánchez Llorente "Writing desk" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2021. http://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;es;Mus01;25;en, last accessed 30/09/2021).

Differently from typical 15th-century Nasrid cabinets and pieces of furniture, our lot shows the presence of tiny silver sections in the marquetry work. In the immediate post-Nasrid period (16th century), the introduction of silver into the taracea became more common thanks to the abundance of that material imported from the Spanish colonies in the New World (M. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2010, p.88). Moreover, the designs of 16th-century productions tend to abandon the crisp geometric quality of 15th-century models in favour of more intricate and multi-layered patterns, as evident in the stellar medallions on the front of our cabinet. Another Spanish cabinet related to ours and coming from the same UK-based collection was successfully sold at Sotheby's London earlier this year, 31 March 2021, lot 88.

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