ATTRIBUTED TO MAYHEW & INCE, CIRCA 1770

This fine pair of side cabinets can be attributed to the Golden Square cabinet-makers Messrs. Mayhew & Ince based on a number of stylistic characteristics: their aesthetically plain form, the use of unusual but superb quality timbers of fustic and yew wood, ebonised mouldings, chequered stringing and the distinctive wreath-pattern handles. A similar rectilinear form is evident in the firm’s early designs for Library, Bureau and Dressing tables as published in The Universal System (1762). At least one side table and a pair of urns with pedestals supplied by Mayhew & Ince to Lord Kerry, now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery also use yew-wood with ebonized borders; Mayhew & Ince appear to be the only major London maker at this time that were using yewwood and it it thus considered a hallmark of their style (C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew & Ince: The Idlest Ostentation’, Furniture History, vol. 26, 1990, pp. 28-20). The wreath handles relate to those found on a chest of drawers illustrated in H. Roberts, ‘Nicely fitted up’: Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough, Furniture History, vol. 30, 1994, p. 136, fig. 24.