The richly inlaid top of the ormolu-enriched cabinet displays a flowered and scalloped cartouche within a ribboned border, whose reed and corn enrichments evoke the element of water. This French-fashioned inlay relates to the work of Robert Blake, 'cabinet-inlayer and buhl manufacturer', who was established in the 1820s in Stephen Street off Tottenham Court Road and is thought to have executed marquetry for E. H. Baldock, the celebrated dealer in French furniture (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, Leeds, 1996, p. 18).

An ormolu and brass-mounted marquetry writing-table with related elaborately scrolled and floral-inlaid marquetry panels was sold from The Mermaid House Collection, 12 November 1998, lot 348 (£33,350).