The black-japanned cabinet decorated with golden landscapes in imitation of Oriental lacquer, and displaying mountainside pavilions and palace courtyards viewed beside exotically flowered shrubs, is typical of the exotic style, appropriate for bedroom apartments, that was taught by John Stalker, japanner of the Golden Ball, St. James's Market and illustrated in his Treatise on the Arts of Japanning, Varnishing and Guilding, 1688. It was dedicated to Elizabeth Butler, Countess of Derby, and was intended for both amateur and professional artists. As well as demonstrating the drawing of whimsically proportioned buildings, plants and animals, he also provided patterns for exotic birds. Although none of his work has yet been identified, it is likely to have been retailed through eminent cabinet-makers such as G. Jensen, who supplied a japanned cabinet for presentation to the Emperor of Morocco in 1680.
The giltwood frame is designed in the French arabesque manner, popularised during the reign of King Charles II by the engravings of Jean Le Pautre (d. 1682), and its acanthus-scrolled frieze is inhabited by cherubim-masks and a grape-bearing eagle, while cherubim-herms emerge from its serpentined trusses with acanthus-wrapped and voluted feet and a bacchic youth reclines on its plinth-centred stretcher. A closely related stand supporting a similarly japanned cabinet was acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1912 (see: O. Brackett, Catalogue of English Furniture, vol. III, London, 1927, no. 1080)