A Chinese Export padouk chest with twelve drawers, the “kneehole” enclosing three further drawers, all with paktong handles and lock escutcheons, on bracket feet, with paktong carrying handles to the sides; the drawer bases with Chinese characters.

The design of this chest of drawers is based on a kneehole desk gleaned from a pattern in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet- Maker's Director, 1755, pl. XLI or from other examples from England, but the construction techniques and the paktong mounts are characteristically Chinese. The proportions of this chest are noteworthy as the “kneehole” is particularly small - 22 inches (56cm) high and just 10 inches (25.5cm) wide). It is also high for use as a desk and features large carrying handles to the sides. These are all interesting features of the interpretation of British furniture designs carried out by Chinese furniture makers in the 18th century.

A bureau dressing table with notably similar handles and of comparable form to this chest, also copied from Chippendale’s Design Book of 1754 is illustrated in by Carl L. Crossman in The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, (Woodbridge, 1991), pl. 82 p. 230).