Cabinet of Curiosities

Tucked into a corner of a European Decorative Arts gallery at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is a curious object that has fascinated me over the years. I think it's a fairly recent piece in the collection; it may actually be on loan to the MFA. Anyway, there it is, this hulking monstrosity in a room judiciously populated with naturalistic Meissen porcelain peacocks, views of Venice by Guardi and Caneletto, a large allegorical painting by Tiepolo and a rustic romance by Gainsborough.
It is an almost six foot tall cabinet made in Germany in the mid 1700's.The decorative style mimics Asian lacquerware with rich reds and golds used on a black ground. This piece of furniture however was created entirely by craftsmen who had never travelled far from their German homes. Every surface is decorated with exotic scenes of people and potentates traveling and hunting. According to the caption that accompanies the exhibit, the illustrations were derived from a popular 1699 German translation (presumably) of Johannes Nieuhof's " An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperor of China." Nieuhof and a his delegation of Dutch businessmen visited Peking in 1655 to negotiate trade agreements with the Chinese. What they found was a country in the middle of a war. As a result, the embassy took longer to achieve its mission and this gave Nieuhof time to amass his observations. The resulting book was popular and it is an indication of how the European world was shrinking as trade and empires expanded. In a short time, popular tastes began to include the results of the new realities of global business.