MID-18TH CENTURY

This pedestal desk is unusual in having a 'triumphal arch' kneehole on the front and reverse, unlike most architectural desks of this form which have a recessed cupboard in the kneehole. There is a related kneehole desk with similar columnar angles in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is inscribed 'David Wright Lancaster 1751' leading to the possibility that this desk from Lancashire, is by the same maker (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, 1968, fig. 20). There is another related kneehole desk with fluted pilasters on the kneehole in The Mansion House, London (ibid., fig. 19).
A related partner's pedestal desk, again with arched kneehole and the arch crowned with a keystone, was sold by the late D.K.F. Heathcote, Esq., Badlingham Manor, Suffolk, Vosts auctioneers, 16 September 1999, lot 133.