an austrian silver and enamel-mounted ebonized casket on stand circa 1880

of architectural outline, mounted inside and out with finely painted enamel plaques en grisaille with biblical, mythological, and Medieval chivalry scenes, set within floral garland silver claps, the stepped pediment top with a sliding secret compartment, the interior with a long drawer above a arched-niche-fronted door opening to three small secret drawers and flanked by another arched drawer and another small drawer, each door with an inset silver plaque, one engraved with Samuel G. Fisher, the other with Renee W. Fisher, the stand on spirally fluted supports joined by a X-shaped stretcher and fitted with a frieze drawer.

The whole appearance of this cabinet on stand shows the interest of cabinet makers in the old Austrian Empire to produce true works of art, which displayed all their skills, and which they wanted to be seen as fine arts, rather than as purely decorative pieces of furniture. The baroque style with its use of many mythological and religious objects offered an appropriate basis for the decoration of the present lot. The enamels of this piece are typical for the works of art produced in the regions of Vienna, Prague and Bohemia. All these areas are renowned for glass production, a related technique. Many of the goldsmiths were well versed in the art of the enamelling. Most distinctive are the works by Viennese artists; the best known makers were Hermann Boehm, Simon Gruenwald, Ludwig Pollizer and Hermann Ratzersdorfer, although not a great deal of research has been done on their oeuvre to date.