This toile is a "document copy", slightly adapted, of a design produced by the manufacturer Petitpierre Frères et Cie at Nantes in Brittany, sometime between 1785 and 1790.

The method of printing was from a copper engraving, and the original print in question was executed in madder on cotton.

Examples in various colourways can be seen in the archives of The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, The Metropolitan in New York, The Cooper Hewitt in New York, the Société Industrielle in Rouen, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

The designer of the original Nantes toile, Panurge dans L'Ile des Lanternes, is not documented, but an obvious influence is the eminent designer and court decorator, Jean Pillement, who tended to specialise in chinoisèrie or exotic themes.

The toile was a graphic extension of a three act comedy of the same name, music composed by Gréty based on a short story by the Count of Provence and Morel after Rabelais in 1785.

The iconography of the toile owes some references to a work published in Paris in 1735 called A Description of China & Chinese Tartary.

The toile was shown in a remarkable exhibition, entirely devoted to Nantes toiles, organised by the Musée de l'Impressions sur Étoffes de Mulhouse and shown at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris in 1978.

Scholarly opinion rightly established the artistic excellence and unrivalled variety of these mostly unknown, anonymous, and until recently, undocumented toiles.