This unusual cabinet is typical of Beurdeley's innovative style. Like Linke, Beurdeley created new forms as well as following the ever-popular and thus commercial practice of copying important, often royal, furniture and objects from the ancien régime. The form of the present lot is unusual, as it is intended to stand alone in the center of a room, arrogantly intending to be a simple cupboard and not as might be expected to be a four-sided, glazed vitrine for displaying objects. Indeed the cabinet itself is the object on display. Beurdeley's use of lacquer, exceptionally rich and with thick gilt decoration, takes the late 17th and 18th century practice of displaying Oriental lacquer to new heights.  Roughly following the Transitional period, a style that developed out of the rococo of the Louis XV period and into the neoclassical era that heralded the reign of his grandson Louis XVI, Beurdeley has created something new while producing a meuble de luxe that traditional buyers would understand. The mounts follow well-known 18th century precedents, for example the flowerhead guilloche below the marble and the massive ram's heads or têtes de belier that guard each corner.

Beurdeley used high quality Oriental lacquer on much of his finest furniture, for example a secrétaire in Louis XV style, sold Sotheby's New York, A Private Collection, Part I, October 26, 2006, lot 188.

Another innovative piece was sold in the Vente Beurdeley, Paris, May 6-9, 1895, lot 279. In 1895, the company's workshops closed and Beurdeley's stock was sold at a number of auctions conducted by the Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two auction catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between March 6-9 and May 27-28, of that year.