A post-Nasrid bone-inlaid wood casket, Spain, 16th century

The Nasrid technique of micromosaic inlay continued to be used in Spain until the end of the sixteenth century. It was used to decorate various types of furniture and wooden objects including small caskets, chests, cabinets, X-framed chairs, chessboards and musical instruments. The designs were non-figurative based on geometric ornament, such as starbursts, and sometimes floral motifs. Mariam Rosser-Owen notes that in the sixteenth century, "the use of silver became more common [...], presumably the result of the new abundance of that material as an import from Spain's colonies in the New World: it is most often used in groups of three tiny triangles, filling the dark spaces in the angles of the design..." (M. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2010, p.88). Further elements typical of the sixteenth century style include the so-called "petalled star" motif, and "zig-zagging ribbon" designs in the borders (ibid.) A rectangular sixteenth-century wood casket of similar size and comparable decoration, inlaid with bone and silver, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no.530-1903; illus. ibid., no.80, p.89).

For related examples of post-Nasrid chests and caskets sold in these rooms, see 31 March 2021, lot 88; 24 April 2013, lot 159; and 3 October 2012, lot 141. For a related sixteenth century, post-Nasrid chest with similar inlaid decoration using various types of wood, see the following lot.