Cabinet, Flemish, 17th century. Ebony, tortoiseshell, silver and silver gilt, 83.8 x 117.2 x 43.4 cm. RCIN 26305. Royal Collection © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Provenance: Bequeathed to Queen Victoria by Robert, 8th Baron Belhaven and Stenton, 1868

Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1819-1901)

This elaborate cabinet, veneered in red tortoiseshell with heart-shaped panels and silver and silver-gilt mounts (on a later stand), was thought in the nineteenth century to have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. It bears an inscription which records that it was brought from France to Scotland by Mary and given to the Regent, Lord Mar. It passed by descent to the Belhaven family and was bequeathed to Queen Victoria by Robert, 8th Baron Belhaven and Stenton (died 1868), with the request that it be preserved either at Windsor Castle or Holyroodhouse. As the cabinet is clearly of seventeenth-century manufacture, the traditional association with Mary, Queen of Scots (who died in 1587) is clearly fictitious.