Lot Essay
Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd ed. 1762, pl. LXXVII illustrated a pattern for a 'library table' whose moulded end-panels have flowered hollow corners. In place of rosettes the spandrels here are filled with Grecian palmettes such as can be found on a mid-1770s inlaid commode at Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, which has been attributed to Chippendale (see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, fig. 236). The desk's vase-capped and fluted columnettes, which are applied to the rounded corners have been linked with the plain columnettes which feature on night-tables supplied by Chippendale around 1770 for Harewood House (ibid, vol. II, p. 452)