AN ALHAMBRA-STYLE CAST-IRON AND WOOD STORAGE WALL CABINET
Possibly Germany, late 19th - early 20th century

Of rectangular shape, made of cast iron, the central opening panel replicating the wall of the Mirador de Lindaraja in the Hall of the Two Sisters, part of the Andalusian Alhambra Palace in Granada, with two ogival arch-shaped mullioned windows in the centre below another ogival arch fitted in the middle of a larger and intricate wall composition, the overall decorative vocabulary slavishly inspired by Andalusian architecture featuring fretwork bands, arabesque and intricate vegetal scrolls, knotwork, stellar medallions, floral bands and geometric friezes, the band at the top with pseudo-calligraphic oval cartouches possibly repeating the Nasrid motto La Ghaliba Illa Allah ('There is no conqueror but God'), the door opening to reveal a wooden interior divided into two parts with a middle shelf, the separate iron-cast wall shelf decorated with two geometric stellar designs and openwork vegetal side panels, stamped at the back with the official Ilsenburg Factory mark, a building complex established in 1840 and converted to seat of the upper Administration of the princely smelting works, 49cm x 35.5cm x 13cm.

The Nasrid-inspired decoration on this cabinet is an almost exact reproduction of the polychrome-painted and gilt gesso architectural model produced by Rafael Contreras, the main adornista in charge of the restoration of the Alhambra Palace Complex, in the 19th century, now part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (acc. no. 86.15.2).