Spanish American furnishings veneered in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl designs are known as enconchados. The term derives from the application of small sheets of mother-of-pearl (concha de perla) on wooden surfaces. Because of their materials and decorative schemes, the works have been slippery to categorize. Scholars have suggested that they were imported aboard the famous Manila Galleons that traveled annually to the port of Acapulco in Mexico, from where the objects were distributed throughout Spanish America. Some experts have argued that their profusion in Lima suggests local manufacture, possibly with the involvement of Asian artisans. Archival and material documentation, however, seems to suggests that the works originated in Guatemala City, where mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell were harvested locally and considered a prized commodity. Many works made of these materials were exported to Mexico and Peru. The designs draw on a range of European and Asian sources, which local artists creatively reinterpreted.

The cabinet would have been displayed on a matching bufete (stand) with a second bureau stacked on top, forming a pyramidal ensemble. Modeled after seventeenth-century German, Flemish, and Iberian prototypes, the works were usually crowned with a valuable object or sculpture. These “towers of riches” could also incorporate religious images under glass, asserting the piety of their owners. This example contains a central niche enlivened with a painting of Saint John the Baptist.