The temple-pedimented and mirrored cabinet or 'chest of drawers', is conceived in the George II 'antique' or Roman manner. Its open Composite pediment, in the 'Inigo Jones' manner, derives from a mirror pattern invented for George II by the architect William Kent (d.1748) and published in Isaac Ware, Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, 1731 (pl. 33) and engraved by Batty Langley in 1739 for inclusion in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, 1740 (pl. XCII). Being intended for the window-pier of a bedroom apartment, it is fitted with a 'pier glass' mirror and this is flanked by fluted Doric pilasters relating to Langley's 1739 'niche or buffet' pattern issued in the Treasury (pl. LV).

Its pediment pattern was adopted for a pair of bookcases supplied to Powderham Castle, Devon bearing the 1740 label of John Channon. While its mirror crest, serpentined in the French manner, corresponds to that of a mirrored bureau-cabinet also dated around 1740 (see C. Gilbert and T. Murdoch, John Channon and brass-inlaid furniture 1730-1760, London, 1993, figs. 132 and 69).