A long folding leather wallet. The front carries an embossed panel of five robed youths standing in a row and singing from a long scroll they hold between them, with bands of flowers above and below. The leather is finished in bronze tones with green in the recesses, and the edges are whipstitched in leather. Inside it's lined with green moiré silk, with a pocket on each side and a small leather tab closure.
The scene is copied from Luca della Robbia's Cantoria, the marble singers' gallery he carved for Florence Cathedral in the 1430s. Florentine leather workshops pressed panels like this into wallets, card cases and blotters for visitors to take home, and the bronzed finish made the leather look like a little cast relief.
Condition: Wear as expected: rubbing and crazing to the leather, most at the spine, and a small fray at one corner of the edge lacing.
