Gottfried Turau is celebrated above all for his collaboration from 1707-11 with Ernst Schacht on the completion of the legendary Amber Room, which had been begun by Gottfried Wolffram. Like his father Claus Turau (or Turow), he has heretofore been known exclusively for his works in amber executed in Danzig (Gdansk), of which he became a citizen in 1697, the year he qualified as a master. Apart from the Amber Room, which Peter the Great so admired on his visit to Berlin in 1713 that it was presented to him as a gift, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia also gave the Czar an amber jewel casket made by Turau. Although the Amber Room reached St. Petersburg in 1717, it was not until 1755-60 that it was installed in Djetskoje (formerly Zarskoje) Ssélo (Pushkin) by Alessandro Martelli (Rohde, locs. cit.). There it remained until the last war, when it was removed to Königsberg, only to be dismantled and disappear as the Soviet forces occupied Germany. In recent years there has been considerable speculation concerning its whereabouts and the possibility that it may one day resurface (Janssen, loc. cit.).
The existence of the present cabinet demonstrates that Turau, about whom little is known, also worked in ivory. Were it not for the signature, which emphasises his double responsibility as both the designer and the maker of the piece, it would doubtless not have been attributed to him. However, nothing about the cabinet is incompatible with what is known of Turau's style on the basis of comparison with his work in amber, and the reappearance of the present piece is likely to lead to further attributions to Turau, of works both in amber and ivory.