This marquetry table with its superb vignette of birds and butterflies accompanying a florid basket of flowers, is inlaid on an ebony ground in the naturalistic Louis XIV manner associated with the court ébéniste André-Charles Boulle (d.1732); while the fluted columnar legs reflect the Louis XVI 'antique' manner of the late 18th century. This piece is typical of the high quality work produced by Joseph Cremer (d.1878), Artiste en mosaïque et marqueterie, who supplied furniture to King Louis-Philippe (d.1848) and received medals at various International Exhibitions, including the medaille d'honneur in 1855, when the jury praised his skills as a designer and marqueteur with the words 'M. Cremer est un maître'.