These Egyptian porphyry slabs are supported on a plinth-based commode of richly figured rosewood, conveived in the French manner with silk-hung and trellis-grilled doors recessed behind Egyptian-hermed pilasters, enriched in ormolu, with priestess busts and feet. Serving in part as pier-tables, their form relates to that of the caryatid tables illustrated by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d.1831) in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pl.XIII), which provided a guide to his Duchess Street mansion/museum. The pearl-draped busts derive from those of a table in Mrs Hope's Boudoir, which served as 'a repository of Egyptian, Hindoo and other curiosities', (ibid., pl.XIII). These Egyptian or Theban busts are likely to have been executed by one of the emigré French bronze-manufacturers such as Alexis Decaix (d.1811), who was employed by Messrs. Garrard, the Court goldsmiths, before opening showrooms in Old Bond Street in 1809.

A related drawing-room cabinet was supplied in 1806 by Messrs. Morel and Hughes, cabinet-makers of Great Marlborough Street, to Orlando, 2nd Earl of Bradford for Weston Park, Staffordshire (P.Rogers, 'The remodelling of Weston Park', Furniture History Society Journal, 1987, fig. 10).