Cabinets like this one, equipped with drawers and hidden compartments, offered storage for smaller, precious items that usually appeared in rooms filled with art known as cabinets of curiosities. Some examples held such elaborate decorations and materials and demonstrated such artistic virtuosity that they themselves were considered “cabinets of curiosities.” This example is certainly elaborate, with its metal drawers, doors, and architectural elements meticulously inlaid with designs in gold and silver wire. Six of the twelve labors of the ancient mythological hero Hercules are depicted on the drawer fronts, including his struggles with the Cretan bull, the Nemean lion, and the centaur Nessus. The larger doors across the center of the cabinet depict classical ruins and fantastical cityscapes in rich detail. The decoration on the central door features a statue of Hercules on the right and above it the monogram MG, which could relate to either the patron or the cabinet’s maker.