Why would R.J. Horner and Company, an American furniture maker, scorch and shape maple wood to look like Asian bamboo? In the mid-19th century, America's desire to control Pacific trade networks extended beyond California's statehood in 1850 to previously closed Japanese ports. An American military-enforced trade agreement between America and Japan in 1850s introduced Japanese art and objects to North American artists, who liberally adopted Asian aesthetics in their designs. The soaring popularity of the Japanese Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia confirmed consumer interest for desks like this, and American magazines of the time declared bamboo the perfect material to furnish a summer home.