Lot Essay
This ormolu-enriched and buhl-inlaid writing/tea-table, with hinged candle-flaps, was designed in the French/antique fashion to accompany a Drawing Room fireside Grecian sofa. The cabinet-maker George Oakley (d.1840) was a specialist in the manufacture of such furniture. In the 1920s a table of this pattern, possibly removed from Knole, Kent, was in the possession of Lady Victoria Sackville (d.1936) at White Lodge, Brighton, while another was formerly in the possession of H. Blairman & son. (see R. Edwards, Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964 p.573 fig.17; and F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1987, p.317). Another formerly in the possession of Mrs.Windel (sold Christies King Street 27 November 2003 lot 16).