Sir Andrew Fountaine (d.1753), described as one of the keenest virtuosi of his age, is likely to have commissioned this display-cabinet for miniatures and enamels shortly after returning in 1716 from his second Grand Tour of Italy and Southern Europe in pursuit of art and antiquities, and his establishment of a London house in St. James's Place. It was during its probable removal in the early 1730s to his Norfolk estate at Narford that part of his celebrated collection of miniatures was destroyed by fire while stored at White's Chocolate House in St. James's, London. A related George II rosewood cabinet of grandiose proportions, removed from the Walpole family house in St. James's was later displayed by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, Middlesex (D. Fitz-Gerald, Victoria and Albert Museum: Georgian Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1969, no.43, inv. no. W.52-1925).