Cabinet of Philippe D´Orleans, realized by Pierre Gole (cabinet maker of Louis XIV) in 1661-65.
Reproduced on a scale, with materials such as bone, ebony, gilded bronze, walnut inside and marquetry of various woods.
Its drawers are made with tiny dovetail assemblies and has somewhat reduced dimensions for a piece of furniture with so much marquetry work (10.5 cm high x 7 cm wide) making the small flowers difficult to accomplish.

The original piece is located in the V&A Museum in London.

This small cabinet is an exceptionally delicate version of cabinets that became the preeminent type of luxury furniture throughout Europe in the 17th century.

Larger versions, with the marquetry of tropical woods, survive in some numbers. The idea of using ivory as a veneer had been developed in Augsburg, in the decade of 1620, but Pierre Gole, royal cabinet maker in Paris, was unique in the use of this as a cause for marquetry in wood with vivid colors.

Gole almost certainly made this piece of furniture for the home of the Duke of Orleans, brother of the King Louis XIV of France and also famous for its “extravagances ” in Versailles. In 1661 he married the Duchess Enriqueta Ana, fifth daughter of King Charles I of England. The couple established their home in the Palais Royal, Paris. When the Duchess died in 1770 an inventory of the house was taken under the supervision of Gole and a cabinet of the identical form and size appears in their apartments.

The cabinet was one of the six pieces of bone that were in the palace’s “white Room.” This room was covered in white silk with silver and gold embroideries.

Price: to consult