IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1780

The form of this bookcase with its elegant swan's neck pediment, centered by a sculpture cresting, as well as its bordered cabinet doors with cut-corners compares to documented bookcases executed in the workshop of Thomas Chippendale. A pair of comparable bookcases was supplied to Sir Lawrence Dundas for his London home at 19 Arlington Street in 1764 (see C.Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, New York, vol.II, p.48, fig.73). Another similiar pair commissioned by the Earl of Pembroke for Wilton House, Wiltshire appear in Sir William Chambers's drawings for the study at Pembroke House (op.cit., pp.44-46, figs.68-71). A similar bookcase from the Estate of Virginia Carroll Crawford, sold in these Rooms, 24-25 January 2001, lot 89.