amber cabinet

An amber cabinet of this size is quite rare and served less for storage than as autonomous collection piece in a courtly Kunstkammer (a room known as a “cabinet of arts and curiosities”). The amber panels are mounted on a wooden core and vary in thickness and colour tone. Some are carved in relief. Among the motifs depicted in these reliefs are allegories of the four elements. On the left door: air (clouds, birds) and on the right: earth (animals, fruits). Fire and Water are placed on the side walls. The costliness of the material and the quality of the workmanship suggest that the cabinet was commissioned in connection with a special occasion, possibly the marriage of the Prussian king Frederick I to Sophia Luise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1708.