During the eighteenth century, enamelled copper wares were imported into Europe in considerably smaller quantities, and in fewer forms, than porcelain. This relative scarcity may be partly explained by restrictions on the export of copper from China. As many such objects were acquired through private trade, documentation concerning the specific types of pieces brought to the West is limited. Nevertheless, a small number of European auction catalogues record the presence of Chinese enamelled copper wares.

A number of these objects reached Europe among the personal effects of nobles returning from Asia. When the Marquês de Alorna, 44th Viceroy of India, returned to Portugal in 1751, he reportedly brought 124 trunks, the first seventeen filled with Chinese porcelain. Inventories also list painted enamels on copper among the cargo, including ‘1 escrevaninha de cobre esmaltado’ (a writing desk of enamelled copper), which may refer to a piece comparable to this miniature bureau. Such desks were occasionally supplied with European-made stands.

Enamel-on-copper bureaus are rare. Comparable examples are preserved at the Casa-Museu Dr Anastácio Gonçalves in Lisbon, in the former Ann and Gordon Getty Collection, now in a European private collection, and at the Albuquerque Foundation in Sintra, Portugal.