Lot Essay
A similar patterned library-table, formerly at Tyninghame, East Lothian, is likely to have been introduced by Charles, 8th Earl of Haddington (d.1828), who inherited the estate in 1794 (offered anonymously Sotheby's London, 6 July 1990, lot 123). The table's pilaster 'claws' are enriched with golden and Egyptian-striated panels in the early 19th Century French fashion favoured by John McLean of Marylebone Street, and introduced on the claw of a library table at Saltram House, Devon that its attributed to his firm (illustrated in S. Redburn, 'John McLean & Son', Furniture History, Leeds, 1978, pl. 42b).