The silk-panelled pier-cabinet, veneered in exotic black-striated rosewood, is designed in the elegant early 19th Century French/antique manner. Its frieze is flowered with an ormolu bas-relief of a palm-flanked rosette, and the pilasters, bordered in golden brass, are capped by foliated tablets. It is likely to have been commissioned by the Prince of Wales, later King George IV (d.1830) and designed for Carlton House, London, after the architect James Wyatt (d.1812) took control of its works in 1805. It is likely to have been executed by Messrs. Marsh and Tatham of Mount Street and relates to the yew and marble bookcases, with 'rich ormolu ornaments' which they invoiced in 1806. One of the bookcases was sold from the collection of the late Villiers David, Esq., in these Rooms, 21 November 1985, lot 96.