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Art News

The Cucci Cabinet ~ A Royal Gift ~ Sells for 4.5 Million Pounds at Christie’s

"The Cucci Cabinet", circa 1665-1675. A magnificent Louis XIV cabinet-on-stand attributed to Domenico Cucci (1635-1704) and the Gobelins workshop. The Property of The March Family. Estimate: £4million / Price realized: £4.5million. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd., 2009.

LONDON.- Combining superb Florentine pietre dure
plaques with opulent gilt bronze mounts, elaborate marquetry and beautifully
modelled figurative carving, this cabinet is a superb example of the magnificent
cabinets produced in Paris in the mid-17th century.
Almost certainly
given to Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Sweden, or indeed commissioned by her, it is
one of only very few surviving cabinets executed at the Royal Gobelins workshops
in Paris. It illustrates the brilliance of the best Italian, French and Flemish
artists and craftsmen who had been drawn together at the Gobelins and
exemplifies the luxurious sophistication of early Baroque at the Royal courts of
Versailles and Stockholm.