Portable fall-front cabinets of this type were designed for holding personal effects and were a basic requirement of European merchants and traders living and travelling in Asia. This piece belongs to one of the earliest identifiable groups of furniture made in India under Portuguese patronage in the 16th and early 17th centuries.

The production of such furniture was based in western India, a long-standing centre of luxury goods where there were firmly established merchant communities from the Middle East, South-East Asia and Europe. Contemporary accounts differ as to the place of manufacture of such articles, suggesting perhaps that there were several centres working in related styles and sharing methods of production.

Whatever their place of manufacture, it is clear that portable fall-front cabinets of this type were made in large numbers and traded both locally and to Europe, where their exotic materials and decoration would have ensured that they were highly esteemed. As with other goods bound for Europe, cabinets of this type were frequently traded through Goa.