She originally titled it prosaically as "Cup, saucer and spoon covered with fur", but the work was renamed by Breton in reference to Manet's painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.

[4] Later in 1936, the work appeared at the London International Surrealist Exhibition, where it was noticed by Alfred H. Barr, Jr.[6] Barr then displayed the work as part of the "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" exhibition of winter 1936/1937 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, whose visitors selected it as "the quintessential Surrealist object.

[8] One of the women Surrealists, Oppenheim in this work combines the domesticity of the tea set (part of the traditionally feminine decorative arts) with the eroticism and animality of the fur covering.

The image of a fur-lined cup and spoon would not be out of place in the first chapter of any book about anxiety nightmares, in which any pretense of being in control is subverted by sinister happenings.

In this instance, a cup and spoon has grown hair, turning objects from which one should derive relaxation and pleasure into something aggressive, unpleasant and faintly disgusting.

It has connotations of bourgeoise guilt: for wasting time gossiping in cafés and mistreating beautiful animals (the fur is from a Chinese gazelle).