CIRCA 1765, IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

The library table's 'antique' plinth-supported and herm-tapered legs relate to a 1759 pattern published in the third edition of Thomas Chippendale's, Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director, 1762 (pl.117); while its Roman-medallion handle-plates also relate to a pattern adopted by the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) for a large desk invoiced in 1771 for Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, fig. 208). This leg form, with fitted casters, also appears on Chippendale's 1774 dressing-table executed in beautifully figured mahogany for Paxton, Scotland (Gilbert ibid, fig. 425). It is possible that this table was originally supplied to Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Bart (d.1787), a partner in Sir William Forbes and James Hunter's bank. It may have come from Dunskey House, Wigtownshire.