The pattern for this elegant 'Cylinder Desk' is provided in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1792, pl. 47. Another yew-veneered bureau of this type, with drawer-activated cylinder, displays the oval ring-handles that appear on a number of pieces of furniture manufactured by Gillows of London and Lancaster in the 1790s. The latter desk was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 26 May 1937, lot 130 and is illustrated in R. Fastnedge, Sheraton Furniture, London, 1962, fig. 74