Inset overall with costly and jewel-like coloured 17th-century pietre dure panels depicting leopards, horses, camels, birds and deer and centred by a scene of the Fall of Man underneath a panel of the figure of justice, this Flemish ebony cabinet-on-stand would have been the pièce de résistance of the principal room in which it was placed.

Such pictorial panels, on a background of black marble edged with yellow or white marble borders, were created by the Galleria de' Lavori, the Medici grand-ducal workshop in Florence, founded by Grand Duke Ferdinando I of Tuscany in 1588 (renamed the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in the mid-1800s). The cabinet was probably commissioned by a wealthy Northern European and the plaques bought to the Low Countries to be installed in the cabinet. It is possible they were acquired in Florence by an early Grand Tourist who commissioned the cabinet on their return home. Such cabinets evolved from the German Wunderkammer or Italian studiolo, and ebony-framed reliquaries ornamented with pietre dure panels and gilt bronze mounts. They had several functions: as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ in which precious items such as gemstones, carved ivories, and small bronzes were kept; as a statement piece of furniture that illustrated the refined learning of the cabinet’s owner; and also to display wealth and prestige. The ultimate example of this is the Badminton Cabinet, sold twice at Christie’s, most recently on 9 December 2004 (£19,045,250 inc. premium).

The panel depicting Adam and Eve beneath justice imbues the cabinet with an allegorical quality and relates to the famous pietra dura panels of Orpheus set into cabinets like the Barberini Cabinet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1988.19) as well as into the walls of the Reception Hall of the Red Fort at Delhi.