These pieces, comprising 17th Century Dutch gilt leather panels, a 17th Century French romayne panel, and 18th century azulejos, represent diverse sorts of baroque wall paneling.
17th Century, Dutch. There is some damage to the upper left corner. An intact version is held by the Rijksmuseum, and labeled as a “View of Elmina, Cormante and the island of Goeree. Sheet with three performances, July 1665. Above: the Dutch fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter with three conquered English ships for St. Iago castle in Elmina, at the top left of the legend A-n. Bottom left: View of the Fort Cormanty on the African gold coast. Bottom right: View of the island of Goeree in the Cabo Verde off the coast of Senegal.”
The seizure of Fort Cormantin and retaking of Elmina Castle from the English by Admiral De Ruyter's Mediterranean squadron in 1664 would lead to the commencement of the Second Anglo-Dutch War the following year.
18th century, French. Plates 7 and 8 from the “Military Art: Fortification” entry in the Encyclopédie. Explanations of the details in these and other plates from the same text have been provided by the University of Michigan's Encyclopedia of Diderot and D'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project here.
18th century, French. Illustration of the differences between the barbastelle and pipistrelle genuses of bats provided by Christian Friedrich Fritzsch for the Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle.
An English translation of the Comte's remarks on bats can be found here.
A pair of Dutch spoons with a monogram, hallmarked as .875 standard silver in 18th century Rotterdam.
A pair of English forks with an antelope crest, hallmarked as .925 standard silver in London, 1804.
This pair of Japanese Imari plates were made circa 1870. The Confucian “Three Friends of Winter” motif of pine, plum, and bamboo appear alongside a red crowned crane in three of the six pictorial panels. The other three appear to depict an ancient turtle—its shell is trailing a long “tail” of seaweed accumulated over the years—at the mouth of a winding river. Both turtles and cranes are traditionally regarded as a symbols of longevity in Japan, so they often appear together in a “Tsuru Kame” motif.
The colorful overglaze warrants some caution when using a knife, but these plates still see use.
I was fortunate enough to get Dr. Tobias Capwell's opinion on this unusual piece. He noted that the hilt appears to be made of cast iron in the 19th century in the style of a 17th century “pillow sword”. However, it was difficult to tell at a glance if the entire piece had been cast as one brittle piece or if the hilt had been cast onto an older, functional blade. I have subsequently stumbled upon several examples with similar hilts but widely varying blades, which would seem to support the latter theory. One even appeared briefly in the Belgian period drama De Bende van Jan de Lichte, also known as Thieves of the Wood on Netflix, which is set at the end of the Austrian War of Succession in the mid-18th Century.
This tansu comprises two stackable clothing chests each with two of their own button locking drawers. The iron hardware appears to have been forged in Kanto prefecture’s regional style, and I would guess these are probably 19th century from what I can ascertain, but it is difficult to estimate a date without any markings to go off of.