Badminton Cabinet
A Florentine cabinet nearly four metres high, with birds and flowers in hardstones.
The cabinet was ordered by the young Duke of Beaufort on his Grand Tour and stood at Badminton House in England. It was sold in 1990 and 2004 as the world’s most expensive piece of furniture and now belongs to the Prince of Liechtenstein, who shows it in Vienna.
Materials: Ebony, pietra dura (agate, lapis lazuli, amethyst), gilt bronze
Manufacture: Stone mosaic in which thin slices of hardstone are cut to shape and fitted without visible joints.
The birds and flowers are not painted – they are laid in polished stone.
The crest with the arms of the Duke of Beaufort between gilt figures.