One of a pair of cabinets, 1803 (oak, ebony, mahogany, pewter, hardstones, porphyry, gilt bronze)

Pair of rectangular ebony-veneered oak cabinets; each with granite top, fitted with a frieze drawer above two doors, raised on six gilt bronze feet, the four at the front terminating in paws. Front divided into three by four uprights, the outer two with gilt bronze sphinx terms. Decorated overall with pietra dure low relief panels depicting birds and vases of flowers. This pair of cabinets was commissioned in Paris for the Prince of Wales (later George IV) by his friend Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh in 1802, during a break in hostilities between England and France. Lignereux's French Empire design incorporates seventeenth-century Florentine plaques with fashionable Egyptian gilt bronze heads. David Cohen has suggested, based on considerable documentary evidence, that the mounts are by P.-P. Thomire.