Badminton Cabinet

It is not enough to say, as everyone will, that the Badminton Cabinet auctioned in London this week for $36.7 million is the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold.

The Badminton Cabinet (or Badminton Chest) was commissioned by Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, at the age of 19. It took thirty experts six years to create and is named after the Duke’s seat of power, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, where it sat until it was auctioned by his descendents in the late 20th century.

The 18th-century Florentine ebony chest, which is inlaid with hard and semiprecious stones, was never about function. The piece was commissioned in an era when exquisite decorative objects signified wealth and power, just as paintings and sculptures have since. But Thursday at Christie's, this rare work -- only three of its caliber are known -- entered a realm that seemed reserved for fine, mostly impressionist, art. The Badminton Cabinet became the 17th most expensive item conveyed at auction. It ranks behind nine Picassos and four van Goghs, but just ahead of Pontormo's "Portrait of Duke Cosimo I de'Medici" (it was in Medici's workshop that the chest was made). Every other entry in the art market's Top 20 is a painting.