Date: about 1710-20
Maker: cabinetwork attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732)
Materials: oak, walnut, ebony, turtleshell, brass, gilt bronze, steel and velvet
Measurements: 41.2 x 34.5 x 26.5 cm
Inv. no. F20
This small cabinet was made to contain medals. Concealed behind a fall front are 12 shallow drawers lined with red velvet, on which the medals would have been displayed.
It was created in Boulle’s workshop in the early decades of the 18th century, judging mainly from the style of the elaborate scrolling marquetry in both première- and contre-partie, which almost anticipates the sinuousness of the Rococo.
The exterior marquetry features a double-scroll motif that appears on other works by Boulle from this period.
The cabinet is evidence of the keen interest shown by both Louis XIV and his court in creating and collecting medals, a tradition that developed much earlier in Renaissance Italy under artists like Pisanello (about 1395–1455).
These medals often celebrated great leaders and their heroic deeds and were primarily intended to inspire awe and contemplation. However, they also played an important didactic role, as demonstrated in a portrait of the sculptor Jean Warin (1604–1672) teaching the young Louis XIV history through coins from the classical world, as well as a medal of his grandfather, Henri IV.
Boulle made a number of medal cabinets, the earliest of which date to around 1715 and were probably intended to be given as diplomatic gifts by Louis XIV. Around 1713, Nicolas de Launay (1646–1727), silversmith to the king and director of the mint, designed a series of 65 medals depicting the kings of France to be contained in a series of cabinets.
Boulle made a number of medal cabinets, the earliest of which date to around 1715 and were probably intended to be given as diplomatic gifts by Louis XIV. Around 1713, Nicolas de Launay (1646–1727), silversmith to the king and director of the mint, designed a series of 65 medals depicting the kings of France to be contained in a series of cabinets.
He commissioned Boulle to make eight, four in plain wood veneers and another four in turtleshell marquetry. These were completed by 1715, as they appear in an inventory made of Boulle’s workshop when it was handed over to his sons. Today, cabinets from the order are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée de la Monnaie.
Although the Wallace cabinet was probably made around the same time as the Launay cabinets, it is entirely different in both size and shape. Instead of five drawers, divided to contain the 65 medals of the kings of France, the Wallace medal cabinet has 12 drawers, but the medal compartments and their original linings do not survive.
The back of the cabinet is decorated with simple wood veneers, rather than turtleshell marquetry, suggesting that its original owner, who remains unidentified, intended to position it against a wall.
There is a possibility the cabinet might be the one that was in the 1826 sale of Vivant Denon (1747–1825), Napoleon’s minister of arts, who travelled with the emperor to Egypt and became an early Egyptologist. However, by 1865, it was in the collection of the 4th Marquess of Hertford, when it was loaned to the Musée Rétrospectif, a major exhibition of historic objects held at the Palais de l’industrie.