The cabinet decoration, of whimsical Oriental gardens with flowering shrubs, birds and butterflies, relates to patterns issued in John Stalker and George Parker's, Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The indented-corner tablet set within a broad frame corresponds to that of a 17th Century Japanese lacquer cabinet illustrated in M. Jourdain and R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Export Art, London, 1967, (fig.31) and displayed on a similar stand that is carved with putti amongst Roman foliage in the French arabesque manner. A pair of seventeenth century Japanese lacquer cabinets, that are similarly decorated on a white ground are illustrated in T. Murdoch (ed.), Boughton House, The English Versailles, London, 1922 (pl. 80), while white-japanned versions, executed in Berlin in the late 17th Century by Gerard Dagly (d.1714), are illustrated H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, (figs. 160-161) and H. Honour, Cabinet Makers and Furniture Designers, London, 1972, (p. 63).