This multi-purpose mahogany dressing-table is fitted with castors for mobility and a combined writing and dressing-drawer. The hinged and ratchetted top with pop-up bookrest typifies the ingenious London-manufactured furniture executed during George II's reign. Thomas Potter illustrated furniture of this type on his cabinet-maker's trade-sheet of the 1730s (see: C. Gilbert, John Channon and Brass-inlaid Furniture, London, 1993, fig. 11)