The Lejambre cabinetmaking firm grew out of an upholstery business founded in Philadelphia about 1825 by Parisian-born Jean Pierre Alphonse Lejambre (who decorated the New Jersey home of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte). The firm favored heavy Restoration-style designs but this delicate table recalls elegant Anglo-Japonesque furniture of British architect E. W. Godwin shown at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial. The inlay depicts an unsuspecting fly approaching a spider lurking in its web. Such exotic ornament recalls the enormous impact of Japanese naturalist motifs – crickets, moths, flies, spiders, and other bugs – introduced to American designers at the Philadelphia exhibition. The inlay’s asymmetrical format echoes Asian art, as do the tiered staggered shelves playing with solid and void.