ATTRIBUTED TO INCE AND MAYHEW, CIRCA 1780

The distinctive and beautifully carved legs of this writing table, headed by stiff-leaves above flutes and with reeded toupie feet, can be seen in various forms on tables (albeit in giltwood) and seat furniture made by the cabinet-making partnership of William Ince (1737-1804) and John Mayhew (1736-1811) of Broad Street, Soho. A giltwood table base with related leg pattern was supplied by the partnership in 1794 to Lord Coventry, invoiced as a 'large frame... on turned legs, neatly carved and the whole gilt in burnished gold', intended to support a rare George II specimen marble table top made by the English craftsman John Wildsmith in 1759 (sold by the Earls of Coventry, Croome Court, at Sotheby's, London, 25 June 1948, and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 58.75.130a, b). The use of exotic timbers (satinwood, goncalo alves, ebony), the ebony banding around the drawers, the triple-stringing and the batwing roundel are also hallmarks of the production of Ince & Mayhew.