An Ottoman tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl inlaid cabinet, Turkey, 18th/19th century

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Purchased from the estate of Dr. Sean B.Murphy, president of the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal, 1968-79.
Ex-collection Mrs Harbud, Oxford.
With note to interior: 'Mrs Harbud ... 43 Argyle Street Iffle Road, Oxford, if anything happens to me, this is for my nephew, Dr. Sean B. Murphy, Clearmont Avenue, Montreal, Canada'.

The striking inlaid designs on this cabinet illustrate a combination of materials that became popular in Ottoman furniture by the start of the sixteenth century (Rogers and Ward 1988, p.156). The angular interlacing designs came to be more favoured, probably because, even in great complexity, they were simpler to carve than cursive motifs. In the second half of the sixteenth century, tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl grew in popularity.