This remarkable commode-dressing-table, richly veneered in arabesque-scrolled filigree on a golden ground, is designed in the Louis XIV antique style of the late 17th Century. A trompe l'oeil three-dimensional effect is added to the lacy fret of its top by the outlining of its acanthus-enriched ribbon bands. Its fanciful yet restrained design is in the manner of Jean Bérain (d. 1711), who succeeded as Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in 1674 and published engravings of Roman or arabesque ornament. It is also typical of the marquetry produced by André- Charles Boulle (d. 1732), who became Ebéniste du Roi in 1672 and has given his name to this highly skilled technique. It relates, for instance, to that of his 'Triumph of the Seasons' cabinets, now in the Royal Collection ('Carlton House', Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1991, no. 21). In addition, its tripartite form with kneehole-recess flanked by drawers with similar inlay features in a dressing-table design by Bérain illustrated in J. Thuillier, Bérain, Paris, 1986, p.48. Its form and technique, however, can be related to the oeuvre of Alexandre-Jean Oppenordt, Ebéniste ordinaire du Roi, who supplied a related bureau brisée for the use of Louis XIV in 1685 (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London 1989, p.65, fig. 12).

The use of bureau mazarin's as dressing-tables is revealed in a contemporary engraving in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (illustrated in P. Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France & Holland, London, 1978, fig. 31)