Conceived in the revived Louis XVI style of the 1870s, the cabinet is supported on a columnar stand, whose legs were inspired by the celebrated Comte d'Artois (later Charles X) cabinet with its ormolu mounts attributed to the famous ciseleur Pierre Gouthiere. Acquired for the Royal collection in 1825, it was copied for the Marquess of Hertford following its loan to the South Kensington Museum in 1862. The Royal cabinet was included in J.B. Waring's, 'Masterpieces of Industrial Art' 1863, but had already featured in J. Braund's Illustrations of Furniture, 1858.

The present cabinet, with its palm and sun-flowered inlay in the Charles X 'Jacob' fashion, has Grecian palm capitals and ormolu embellishments comprised of palm-flowered bas reliefs accompanying Jupiter's bolts and Fame's laurel-wreathed trumpets.
An identical cabinet showing here, lacking the base mounts, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 11 October 1990, Lot 145, (£4,200).