Mathieu Criaerd, maître in 1738.

André and Mathieu Criaerd were born in Flanders before migrating to Paris, where they each became established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine district. A maîtrise year is not recorded for André, and more is known about his brother, who is known to have worked for the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert, as well as with Bernard II van Risamburgh. It can also be presumed that he worked with the Royal cabinetmaker Jean-François Oeben, as he was counted among Oeben's creditors upon the latter's death in 1763.

Mathieu appears to have made a specialty of lacquered and vernis-decorated case furniture, which comprises a large amount of his surviving works. Of these, the best-known are the commode and encoignure executed in blue and white vernis and mounted in silvered bronze, which Hébert delivered in 1742-1743 for the bedroom of Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Mailly, at the château of Choisy, now at the Louvre (inv. nos. OA 11292 and OA 9533). Among his black-ground pieces, both domestic vernis and imported Chinese and Japanese lacquer are well-represented. Although many of Mathieu Criaerd's commodes feature a tripartite composition delineated by bronzes, the Stream commode represents an approach also seen in numerous of his works, in which a horizontal lacquer panel—probably originally a cabinet top—decorated with a Chinese 'bird-and-flower' composition is adapted as two shaped sans travers drawers, unimpeded by framing mounts and often outlined in gold japanning. Numerous examples of this type survive, including one in the Palazzo Pallavicini, Rome, illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, pl. 226; a Royal example delivered in June 1748 by Hébert to Queen Marie Leczinska’s bedroom in the Carmelite convent at the chateau de Compiègne, later sold Christie's, Paris, 17 November 2011, lot 207; and an example sold Christie's, Paris, 10 December 2000, lot 704, with a broad band of gilt-japanning creating a fancy curved outline around the drawers. An example preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, is not attributed but may also be related to the type (inv. no. 45746, illustrated in A. Forray-Carlier, Les Secrets de la Laque Française: Le Vernis Martin, Paris, 2014, pp. 78-79, no. 31).