William Burges (1827-1881) was the first designer in Britain to revive the idea of painted furniture. He did this even earlier than William Morris (1834-1896) and Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898). He designed a whole series of cabinets, similar to this one. They were based in part on medieval prototypes, but infused with impish touches of humour. In France Burges had seen the only two surviving pieces of elaborate French 13th century furniture. He had sketched one of them in Noyon as early as 1853. The French architect Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) illustrated both pieces in 1858. His books influenced Burges and a whole generation of Gothic architects in France and Britain.