The rich Japanned decoration of this bureau cabinet demonstrated the fashion for chinoiserie decoration amang many of the rulers of the German courts at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Formost among these was Augustus the Strong (1694-1733) who decorated at least three palaces in and around Dresden in the chinoiserie taste between 1716 and 1723, employing such accomplished masters in the technique of japanning as Martin Schnell, who had worked under the renowned Gerhard Dagley in Berlin. Two japanned bureau cabinets of similar overall form and attributed to Martin Schnell are illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, 1971, pls. 194 and 195, while another similar bureau cabinet attributed to Schnell at Augustus the Strong's Palace at Pillnitz, is illustrated in H. Kreisel, Die Kunst Des Deutschen Möbels, 1970, Vol. II, fig. 44. A bureau cabinet with similar deep relief decoration and reputedly given by Augustus the Strong to the Bishop of Fulda, was offered in these Rooms 26 April 1990, lot 131.