The design of this impressive casket, richly mounted with carved hardstone fruits, flowers and a bird, closely relates it to the output of the Galleria dei Lavori, or Grand Ducal Workshops, in Florence under its director, the scultore Giovan Battista Foggini (1652-1725), during the reign of Grand Duke Cosimo III (1670-1723). The spectacular creations of the Galleria dei Lavori, which was originally founded by Ferdinand I Medici in 1588, were admired in all the courts of Europe, and were often offered as diplomatic gifts by the Medici. Louis XIV even consciously tried to emulate their success when he created the Gobelins workshops in 1667, and imported Italian craftsmen such as Domenico Cucci.

The workshops were originally established by Ferdinando I de Medici in 1588, and were intended to glorify the artistry of Florence by the creation of exquisite works of art in rare and precious materials. This was later to be imitated by Louis XIV when he set up the Gobelins workshops in Paris, where an Italian, Domenico Cucci, was one of the leading cabinet-makers.

Foggini played a remarkably active role as director of the Medici workshops under Duke Cosimo III, supervising every detail of the works of art produced. This is demonstrated by a fascinating series of drawings by him in the Giornale of the workshops, for caskets and gilt-bronze mounts, executed towards the end of his career (circa 1713-1718), now in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe in the Uffizi, Florence, see A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto: La Toscana e L'Italia Settentrionale, Milan, 1984, vol. I, pp. 41-4, and vol. II, pp. 54-60, figs. 57-77. His painstaking attention to detail is also revealed by this 1699 item in the accounts: 'da casa sua il S. re Foggini il Modello di terra per formarsi i Capitelli de' 2 pilastri dell'Oriuolo, con detti pilastri di Lapisllazulo...,' see op. cit., vol. I, p. 41. The specialist nature of the craftsmen in these workshops is indicated by the fact that Foggini created the position of a fruttista, whose responsibility was the manufacture of the distinctive polished fruit, a high-relief version of which can be seen on this casket. Related caskets are illustrated in op. cit., vol. II, pp. 60-1, figs. 72-7. Analogous caskets sold at auction include one similarly inset with a lapis lazuli border and sold Christie’s, London, 12 December 2002, lot 20 (£171,650) and an example with comparable fruit inlay sold Christie’s, London, 6 July 2012, lot 4 (£145,250).