With close similarities to a Queen Anne black japanned bureau cabinet, sold Christies, London, 29 November 1984 (realised £41,040 including buyer's premium) illustrated G.Beard & J Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, p.62. This pattern of bureau cabinet was produced with other coloured schemes of japanning and is of closely related overall form and decoration to a bureau cabinet exhibited by The Pelham Galleries, Paris at TEFAF Maastricht, 2007 and formerly offered a Della Rocca, Torino, 21 November 2006. A red japanned example of very similar form with the addition of a wavy apron was exhibited by Mallett & Son at The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, London 1959 and illustrated in the accompanying handbook.
The vogue for lacquered objects and screens which were brought back to Europe by the East India Company in the late 17th century resulted in demand for larger pieces with a similar style of decoration. Western cabinet-makers turned to John Stalker and George Parker's seminal 1688 Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing which provided the recipes for producing the various different colours but also templates of Chinese figures, plants and gardens which could be used to create seemingly authentic Chinese scenes. European 'japanning' remained fashionable until the end of the eighteenth century.