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Ruben’s Cabinet - 17th. Century Original Flandern Hand Crafted Oak Cabinet

Currency:CAD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:100.00 - 10,000.00 CAD
Ruben’s Cabinet - 17th. Century Original Flandern Hand Crafted Oak Cabinet
<p>17th. Century Original Flandern Hand Crafted Oak Cabinet

<p>This cabinet came from a Louis XV style castle from Flandern, north of Antwerp built in 1679. Among some of the visitors to this castle at that time was a famous painter named Pieter Paulus Ruben. Out of admiration of this painter, the owner of the castle the Duke of Moretus commissioned the “Ruben’s Cabinet”, the carving in the center of the cabinet door is a reflection of this painter.

<p>During the French Revolution in 1792, and through other war years the furniture including this cabinet and tapestries and paintings were hidden in the labyrinth of corridors underneath the castle.

<p>It was in the late 1950’s when the last member of the Moretus family died and all the belongings from the castle were sold and the money went to restore the castle which has since been turned into a cultural center.

<p>For centuries cabinetmakers in Flandern continued to build a variety of buffet style oak cabinets, but the “Ruben’s Cabinet” is a one of a kind and an amazing example of pure craftsmanship and style. Besides the full figure of Ruben in the center of the buffet other men of distinction, reflective of this time period are individually carved in this cabinet.

<p>A young immigrant family brought the cabinet to Canada in 1980, and it has only now become available for auction for the first time.