A LOUIS XIV MOTHER-OF-PEARL, STAINED HORN, COPPER AND BRASS-INLAID BROWN TORTOISESHELL BOULLE MARQUETRY CASKET

This exquisite little casket is related to a small group of late 17th century items that were decorated in this colourful technique with tinted horn. This group includes a table formerly in the collections of the Duchesse de Talleyrand, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 14-15 June 1981, lot 145, as well as a bureau from Knole, Kent, sold Christie's, London, 17 June, 1987, lot 73, and a related bureau formerly in the collection of Arturo Lopez-Willshaw and Baron de Redé (illustrated in H. Hayward, World Furniture, London, 1970, p. 96). The most beautiful examples within this little group are probably two tables formerly in the Keck Collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, 5-6 December 1991, lot 31, and the Patiño Collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1992, lot 57. This distinctive technique was practised in Germany at the time and there is a possibility that all these pieces were made there (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, 1974, vol. II, No. 114, pp. 550-557).