Unidentified artists
Chest (Baulito)late 17th or early 18th century

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Dome-lidded chest with allover geometric inlay in ivory, amber tortoiseshell, and dark wood forming interlocking eight-pointed stars and diamonds, with small metal feet and a brass lock plate

Dome-lidded wooden casket with intricate geometric marquetry inlay in dark wood, warm brown wood, and ivory or bone, featuring eight-pointed star patterns on the front panels and a border of alternating triangles, raised on small turned feet.

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Chest (Baulito)
Place Made: Mexico, possibly Puebla
Date Made: late 17th or early 18th century
Medium: Wood, metal, tortoiseshell, and bone
Dimensions: 10 3/8 × 13 1/2 × 7 3/4 in. (26.4 × 34.3 × 19.7 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2015.142.2
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This chest incorporates bone and tortoiseshell inlay into fine geometric designs, employing a technique known as embutido. The eight-pointed star resembles decorative panels found in the choir of the Puebla Cathedral in Mexico. Although this type of elaborate decoration has been generically described as “Mudéjar” (a term used to reference the persistence of Islamic art in Spain after the Christian conquest), similar geometric designs circulated in European gardening manuals that were sourced by a range of artists and craftspeople, suggesting broader patterns of transference and circulation. The fine, aromatic woods selected to veneer such boxes were valued not only for their beauty and elegance but also for their durability and protective properties against insects. The exact place of manufacture of this type of luxury container in New Spain is still an open question.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Private collection, Paris; Galerie Terrades, Paris, 2005; LACMA, 2015.
Selected Bibliography: Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Díaz Cayeros, Patricia. “Mobiliario novohispano con diseños geométricos: maderas, carey y hueso.” Res Mobils. Revista internacional de investigación en mobiliario y objetos decorativos 10, no 13 (2021): 31–53.
Ilona Katzew, “Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America,” Unframed, July 20, 2022, https://unframed.lacma.org/2022/07/20/special-things-boxes-spanish-america.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America

July 20, 2022
Ilona Katzew

Unidentified artists
Chest (Baulito)late 17th or early 18th century

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 2

Artist or Maker: Unidentified artists
Title: Chest (Baulito)
Place Made: Mexico, possibly Puebla
Date Made: late 17th or early 18th century
Medium: Wood, metal, tortoiseshell, and bone
Dimensions: 10 3/8 × 13 1/2 × 7 3/4 in. (26.4 × 34.3 × 19.7 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund
Accession Number: M.2015.142.2
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This chest incorporates bone and tortoiseshell inlay into fine geometric designs, employing a technique known as embutido. The eight-pointed star resembles decorative panels found in the choir of the Puebla Cathedral in Mexico. Although this type of elaborate decoration has been generically described as “Mudéjar” (a term used to reference the persistence of Islamic art in Spain after the Christian conquest), similar geometric designs circulated in European gardening manuals that were sourced by a range of artists and craftspeople, suggesting broader patterns of transference and circulation. The fine, aromatic woods selected to veneer such boxes were valued not only for their beauty and elegance but also for their durability and protective properties against insects. The exact place of manufacture of this type of luxury container in New Spain is still an open question.

Ilona Katzew

2024
Provenance: Private collection, Paris; Galerie Terrades, Paris, 2005; LACMA, 2015.
Selected Bibliography: Katzew, Ilona, ed. Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/D.A.P., 2022.
Díaz Cayeros, Patricia. “Mobiliario novohispano con diseños geométricos: maderas, carey y hueso.” Res Mobils. Revista internacional de investigación en mobiliario y objetos decorativos 10, no 13 (2021): 31–53.
Ilona Katzew, “Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America,” Unframed, July 20, 2022, https://unframed.lacma.org/2022/07/20/special-things-boxes-spanish-america.
Selected Exhibition History: Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 12, 2022 - October 30, 2022
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. October 20, 2023 - January 28, 2024
Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500–1800. June 22, 2024 - September 08, 2024

Related Exhibitions

Related Unframed

Special Things: Boxes in Spanish America

July 20, 2022
Ilona Katzew