The serpentine and triple-branched wall-light, composed of Roman acanthus-leaves entwined with the oak that was sacred to Jupiter and emblematic of hospitality, is designed in the 'picturesque' manner introduced in the 1740s by decorative designers such as Jean-Claude Duplessis (d.1774), Louis XV's sculpteur-fondeur-doreur. Appliques of this Fontainbleau Palace pattern, formerly in the J. Guedes de Souze Collection, Lisbon, are now displayed at the Metropolitan Museum (see F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightson Collection, 1966 no 228)