The front, arranged in two registers akin to a contemporary painting on paper, depicts two Portuguese men in courtly attire on horseback, flanked by attendants in local Islamic-style dress. Likely noblemen or wealthy merchants, they wear long-sleeved jerkins (roupetas), baggy trousers, linen ruff collars, and tall hats. The more elaborate top, highlighted by green-dyed bone inlays, also features two registers. The lower shows men in local attire riding elephants with banner-bearing attendants, flanked by men holding birds of prey. In the upper, amidst lush vegetation, two Portuguese men sit cross-legged on a raised platform flanking a flowering plant in a baluster-shaped vase, attended by male and female figures in local attire. Male attendants wear jāma (coat), pay-jāma (light trousers), paṭkā (sash), and kulahdār (small turban), while the females wear ghāghrā (pleated skirt), blouse, and oḍhanī (transparent veil). When opened, the cabinet reveals eight drawers in four tiers, appearing as nine, with a central square drawer featuring its own lock. The drawers’ inlay depicts flowering bushes flanked by jungle bush quails (Perdicula asiatica), native to the Indian subcontinent. The central drawer shows a flowering tree flanked by two local men in Islamic-style attire holding flowers. The fall-front interior, richly adorned with flowering trees, features two Portuguese noblemen seated on chairs in lively conversation, flanked in the lower corners by male and female attendants in local dress.

The present writing cabinet, modelled after a European prototype, ranked among the most prestigious storage furniture of the sixteenth century. Its hinged front formed a writing surface, while multiple drawers provided access to objects and writing implements. Common in European noble and patrician households, such portable furniture was essential for officials, merchants, and traders in Asia. Cabinets made in Asia from exotic materials like East Indian rosewood were highly admired in Europe for their design and technical perfection.