The original screen, from which this is copied, is part of a suite of seat furniture made by J.B.C. Sené in 1788 for the Dressing Room of Marie-Antoinette at Saint-Cloud, of which three pieces, including the screen, are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (J. Meuvret et al., Les ébénistes du XVIII^e siècle français, Lausanne, 1971, p.264). These three pieces, which had been in the Collection of the Marquis de Casaux, were sold in Paris at Drouot on 21 December 1923 for 158,000 francs. The original embroidered silk upholstery, reputedly worked by Marie-Antoinette and her entourage, was removed in 1923 and replaced with the current silk before they were purchased by George Blumenthal. It is possible that the silk panel on this lot is part of the original upholstery and was acquired at the same time in 1923 and the screen copied to accomodate it. The 1788 inventory of the château of Saint Cloud describes the suite as being Un meuble de bazin des Indes fond blanc, brodé au passé à petits bouquets détachés, encadrés de bordures de 2, 3,4 et 9 po., le tout en soie nurée, clové d'une lézarde de soie violette which accords closely with the silk panel of this lot.