The acanthus-wrapped 'sarcophagus' inkstand, with bacchic lion masks and paws, is designed in the early 19th Century Louis Quatorze manner derived from Mariette's folio of engraved design by A. C. Boulle (1707-30). This fashion was popularised in particular by the Queen Street 'French Buhl Manufacturer' Louis Constantin le Gaigneur (fl. 1814-21), who was patronised by the Prince Regent, later King George IV.

Thomas Hill, 2nd Lord Berwick (d. 1832), a close friend of the Prince, is likely to have acquired the inkstand of this pattern that is at Attingham Park, Shropshire (J. Cornforth et al, Attingham Park, 1995 (p. 21). Another, almost certainly supplied to Henry, 2nd Earl of Harewood (d. 1841) of Harewood House, Yorkshire was sold in these Rooms, 10 April 1986, lot 58 and is now in the Gerstenfeld Collection (E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 263, cat. 141). A similarly mounted inkstand is illustrated in Partridge Fine Arts, Catalogue, 1990, pp. 30-31. A further example was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 19 November 1992, lot 5.