The hermed priestess columns reflect the late 18th century French 'Egyptian' fashion, popularised around 1800 by Pierre de la Mesangère's, Journal des Dames et des Modes, 1797, and his Collection de Meubles et Objets de Goût, 1802. Similar caryatic columns with Egyptian heads and feet feature on elliptic and mirror-backed pier-tables supplied in 1803 by the ébéniste Bernard Molitor for the Chateau de Saint-Cloud; and by the ébénistes Jacob Fréres for the Elysée Palace in 1807 (U. Leben, Molitor, London, 1992, fig.119; D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 276). Egyptian hermed pilasters were also adopted in 1806 for a marble-topped commode-bookcase supplied for Weston Park, Staffordshire by Messrs. Morel and Hughes, who described it as having 'carved antique heads & ornaments finished as bronze' (P. Rogers, 'The Remodelling of Weston Park', Furniture History, pp. 11-34, and fig. 10).