LATE 17TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF HENRI VAN SOEST,

Intriguingly, a cabinet of virtually identical proportions and construction, though with the cresting, pilasters and frieze of stand inlaid in premiere partie pewter Boulle marquetry, where the present cabinet shows contre partie marquetry, was sold at Christie's, South Kensington, 24 November 2004. The marquetry panel of that cabinet's central door, similarly showing an allegory of monarchy includes the date '1703', and it was suggested the marquetry of the drawers included the arms of the Leverkusen and the von Wuelfing families, possibly providing a link to the names and date of the original commission for this pair of cabinets.

The allegorical panel to the central cupboard door of this cabinet can be related to the panels produced at the workshops of the greatest Antwerp marchand-ebenistes, Henri van Soest (1659-1726) and a beautiful example centres a pewter-inlaid tortoiseshell cabinet at Burghley, Cambridgeshire.