The surtout Les Quatre Parties du Monde followed a composition by Mallet, head of the Sculpture and Ornaments Department of Christofle (he had together with Carrier-Belleuse, won the first Prize at the Exposition des Arts du Métal in 1880). The figures were by Lafrance and Mathurin Moreau.
Another related model, with the same figures but supported by putti, had been presented at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889; one example is in the Palais de l'Elysée, Paris.