These sophisticated and refined objets are rare examples of the intersection of luxury and craftsmanship in the Neoclassical period. The panels to either side utilize exotic woods, intricately arranged, shaded and stained to create elegant images en vogue at the time. The striking figures on one side of the panels are drawn from the legendary collection of antique vases in the collection of Sir William Hamilton. Hamilton (1730-1803) arrived in Naples as an ambassador in 1764. As a man of enormous curiosity, Hamilton explored numerous intellectual avenues while abroad, including the voracious collecting of antiquities. His extensive collection was profusely illustrated in hand-colored engravings and published by Pierre-François Hugues (self-styled Baron d'Hancarville) in four volumes, starting in 1766-67. The publication was widely distributed and had an indelible impact on Neoclassical design and taste across Europe. The reverse of the panels depicts landscapes clearly influenced by the work of Claude-Joseph Vernet and his contemporaries.

Stylistically, and to certain extent in execution, the ormolu mounts of these wonderful panels can be related to the oeuvre of the Valadier workshop in Rome. The design and scale of the figural mounts, particularly the recumbent sphynxes, and the jewel-like quality of the leaf and bead-cast ormolu are all comparable to the gilt bronzes used by Luigi and Giuseppe Valadier on their precious hardstone objects of varying sizes, including candelabra, clocks and deser. The Valadiers were among the most well-known and sought-after Italian craftsmen of the late eighteenth century and their influence was widespread throughout Italy. In fact, Luigi Valadier executed similar mounted pictorial plaques, one of which is now preserved at the Louvre (inv. no. MR 47). This lavish work consists of an ancient rectangular cameo in ormolu-mounted hardstone frame, all raised on a pair of recumbent ormolu lions.
Interestingly, this work was originally owned by Pope Pius VI and it entered the Louvre in 1801, after Napoleon’s occupation of the Papal State in 1796. Clearly, such precious objects evoking antiquity were very popular with Napoleon and his circle, to which Murat belonged. Furthermore, the way the parquetry panels of this lot evoke ancient red-figure pottery and are embellished with ormolu mounts, is also visually similar to the scagliola vases with gilt bronze dolphin supports from a large deser by Giuseppe Valadier and the sculptor Carlo Albacini, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, see Alvar González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Vol. II, Milan, 1992, p. 290, figs. 578 and 579.

The crowned eagle clutching lightning bolts in its talons and resting kingly atop the rotating panels indicates the subject of its commission: Napoleon’s brother-in-law, one of most distinguished generals and King of Naples, Joachim Murat. The same eagle can be found at the center of his coat of arms during his time as king of Naples (1808-1815). Joachim Murat (1767-1815), was one of Napoleon's most distinguished generals who married Napoleon's youngest sister, Caroline. Having a taste for sumptuous living, Murat and his wife, after having resided from 1802 in the hôtel de Thélusson (a splendid Neoclassical house built in the 1780s by Ledoux), purchased the Elysée Palace in August 1805 which they furnished and renovated at enormous expense - 2,732 francs in total - and completed in November 1806. The modifications were executed by architects Vignon and Thibault, while Jacob Desmalter supplied the furnishings (menuiserie and ébenisterie), Ravrio the gilt-bronzes and Boulard the textiles and upholstery, see J. Coural, Le Palais de l'Elysée: Histoire et Décor, Paris, 1994, p. 49. After Napoleon’s brother Joseph had been awarded with the Spanish throne, Murat took his place as King of Naples between 1808 and 1815, when he was ousted by the Austrians and British. He fled to Corsica where he was captured and eventually executed. By the height of his power, Murat had amassed a large collection of Italian old master paintings, as well as contemporary French fine and decorative arts. After Murat’s death, Caroline managed to retain part of this collection and supported herself by selling works from it while in exile. The rest of the collection was sold at auction in 1815 and purchased by Marchese Emilio Tortora Brayda di Belvedere (1784-1854) for his residences in Molfetta and in Manfredonia.

In the twentieth century, these impressive panels found their way into the collection of Charles de Beistegui (d. 1970), the legendary bon vivant. Beistegui bought the nineteenth-century château de Groussay in 1939, where these table ornaments were preserved for a time. The heir to a Mexican silver fortune, Beistegui had a flair for the theatrical and in collaboration with the Cuban-born architect Emilio Terry (1890-1969), and his assistant Michel de Bros, designed elaborately themed rooms and garden follies in a grand Neoclassical style.