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Lot Essay
The bureau-dressing-table, corresponds to a bookcase pattern popularised by Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775, pl. 33, fig. 127.
Malton's pattern, which incorporates hollow-cornered compartments in the French manner, may have derived from Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), as it matches that of a bookcase he supplied in 1774 for the Arlington Street house of Sir Lawrence Dundas (see C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, fig 73).
The cabinet was probably designed and made by the Golden Square firm of Messrs John Mayhew and William Ince, who's speciality was superbly figured veneers combined with Etruscan-black ribboned or reeded bands. In particular it relates to their mahogany and ebony-enriched pier-commode-table, with the same French stump-foot pattern, that they supplied in the 1770s to the 4th Duke of Marlborough (see H. Roberts, Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough Furniture History, 1990,pp-149 and fig. 26). The flowered and French-fashioned handles, draped from Etruscan pearl-wreathed patera medallions, correspond to a George III Birmingham metal-work pattern (T.R. Crom, An Eighteenth Century Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, no. 786.).
Malton's pattern, which incorporates hollow-cornered compartments in the French manner, may have derived from Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), as it matches that of a bookcase he supplied in 1774 for the Arlington Street house of Sir Lawrence Dundas (see C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, fig 73).
The cabinet was probably designed and made by the Golden Square firm of Messrs John Mayhew and William Ince, who's speciality was superbly figured veneers combined with Etruscan-black ribboned or reeded bands. In particular it relates to their mahogany and ebony-enriched pier-commode-table, with the same French stump-foot pattern, that they supplied in the 1770s to the 4th Duke of Marlborough (see H. Roberts, Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough Furniture History, 1990,pp-149 and fig. 26). The flowered and French-fashioned handles, draped from Etruscan pearl-wreathed patera medallions, correspond to a George III Birmingham metal-work pattern (T.R. Crom, An Eighteenth Century Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, no. 786.).