Style Neo-Renaissance / Ref.16064

Leather and iron travelling case with dragons and mascarons

Travelling writing case of rectangular form, with a wooden core sheathed in embossed leather, entirely mounted with cut ironwork heightened with copper. The body is covered in red-tinted leather embossed with a scattering of foliate scrolls in low relief, serving as a ground for applied metalwork. On each face, plates of cut and pierced iron, patinated black, describe symmetrical scrolls of interlace and volutes, fixed to the leather with round-headed copper nails. The field is peopled with applied figures in polished copper, standing out by their bright tone against the black of the iron and the orange of the leather: helmeted mascarons in profile in the antique manner, grimacing masks seen from the front, and, at the lower angles, confronted winged dragons, jaws open spitting a copper flame, tails coiled. The main face is closed by a fall front, its central lock protected by a mascaron escutcheon framed by two dragons. The lid is surmounted by a carrying handle, formed of a tapered wooden shaft between two iron mounts with scrolls heightened in gold, mounted on two confronted crosiers. The edges are underlined with cut crests and the whole rests on a moulded plinth. The fall front folds forward to reveal the fitted interior, lined in blue velvet. It gives access to a tier of four superposed drawers, their fronts mounted with pierced iron plates in the Gothic tracery manner, quatrefoils set within a network and a frieze of wolf's teeth, fitted with loop pulls. On either side, two leather-bound albums or notebooks sit in lateral compartments. The piece belongs to the production of luxury travelling cases and objects which flourished in the 19th century. The ornamental vocabulary, helmeted mascarons, dragons, interlace and tracery, combines the repertoires of the Renaissance and the Gothic in the eclectic taste of the Second Empire, while the association of embossed leather, cut iron and polished copper reflects tabletry and art metalwork of high quality. The lining bears the stamped mark of the workshop, located in Avignon.