Wardrobe

This grand wardrobe is similar to another in the Wallace Collection. The main purpose of the piece was for display, but it was also fitted with shelves for storage purposes. The figurative gilt-bronze mounts on the centre of the doors represent Apollo and Daphne on one side and Apollo flaying Marsyas on the other, mythological stories derived from Ovid’s 'Metamorphoses'. Boulle himself was a compulsive collector and owned a series of drawings after the 'Metamorphoses' by Raphael, which were destroyed in his workshop fire of 1720.

In a declaration of 1700, Boulle stated that he had nine wardrobes in his workshop, so it is likely that the production of such pieces was quite considerable. This wardrobe was once in the collection of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham at Stowe House. The interior was lined with peach blossom silk and fitted with gilt-bronze brackets and hooks to hold the clothes of Queen Victoria when she visited in 1845, three years before the 4th Marquess of Hertford purchased the wardrobe.