The inset onyx top with a flared gallery, decorated in relief with Chinoiserie panels, fret pierced spandrels and twin scroll handles, raised on reeded shaped legs united by a galleried undertier and terminating in claw and ball feet. NOTE: Edouard Lièvre (1829-1886) trained as a painter under Thomas Couture before turning his attention to industrial design. His earliest important work datable with certainty is the grand vase Persian designed for the Christofle firm in 1874 and exhibited at the Paris Expositions of 1878, 1889 and 1900. Among Lièvre's important clients were actress Sarah Bernhardt, courtesan Louise-Emilie Valtesse de la Bigne, and Albert Vieillard, director of Bordeaux's ceramics factory and an early Japonism enthusiast. The suite of furniture designed for Vieillard included the Cabinet Japonais now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Following Lièvre's death, his designs were sold to George and Henri Pannier, owners of the elegant shop, l'Escalier de Cristal. The Pannier brothers produced altered versions of Lièvre's designs, including seven variants of Vieillard's Cabinet Japonais, one of which was sold to Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia and is now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg.