Although unsigned, the present cabinet is consistent in design with a number of documented examples made by Herter Brothers. Other attributed and signed examples incorporate similar carving, incising and the application of pietre dure, marquetry, and pâte-sur-pâte porcelain decoration (see Howe et al., Herter Brothers: Furniture and Interiors for a Gilded Age, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1994. pp. 118-9, 218).
The overall form of the present example closely relates to that of a cabinet branded by Gustave Herter illustrated in Voorsanger, Gustave Herter, Cabinetmaker and Decorator, in Antiques, May 1995, pl. V pp. 744. A similar attributed pietre dure-adorned cabinet, with identical panelled side doors and with the addition of a splashguard, sold in these rooms 5 October 2000, lot 183.
The Herters were involved in a dispute in 1870 related to the importation of 'Florentine Mosaics'. In an application submitted to the import-duty collector of New York, they contested the customs fees they were required to pay on the plaques, which had been erroneously taxed as jewelry at 50 The plaques, they stated, were intended to be used as "ornaments for mantels, panels &c". Herter Brothers argued that "no more such goods will be sent them for some years". As such, surviving examples of pieces with pietre dure adornments are relatively rare (op. cit. pp. 118 & 162).