http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/2240603827

Roman splendour, English arcadia : the English taste for Pietre Dure and the Sixtus cabinet at Stourhead

"At Stourhead in Wiltshire, the Palladian mansion contains an extraordinary Roman cabinet glittering with gilt-bronze mounts, semi-precious stones and elaborate architectural ornament. Its façade conceals over 125 more-or-less secret drawers. The cabinet was brought to Stourhead in the 1740s by Henry Hoare 'the Magnificent', of the Hoare banking dynasty; he had purchased it in Rome, where it had been made for Pope Sixtus V, whose papacy, from 1585 to 1590, coincided with the Spanish Armada. The superb quality of the 'Sixtus Cabinet' was fully revealed by conservation in 2006-7 and this galvanized research into its history." -- Publisher's description.

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