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Lot Essay
This 'pier-commode' dressing-table, fitted with hinged 'bureau' top,
candle-brackets and carrying handles, reflects the fashion for moveable multi-purpose furniture introduced to London bedroom-aparements in the early eighteenth century, when St.Paul's Churchyeard was the center of the cabinet-making industry. A related bureau top with brass
candle-brackets featured on a chest of drawers sold Christie's London, 16 July 1953, lot 53.
This remarkable desk, distinguished by its finely mottled veneers and unusual concave door, may be compared to an elaborately fitted burr-walnut bureau-cabinet attributed to the maker Peter Miller of the Savoy, Strand and sold by Christie's London, 13 November 1997, lot 160. These two magnificent pieces compare in their carefully chosen exotically figured timbers and construction details. Another bureau-cabinet featuring the same timbers and mounts as the London cabinet bears the signature of this master cabinet-maker and the date 1724 (see C.Gilbert, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp.336-337, figs.644-645). Interestingly, this same piece is also inscribed in Spanish which indicates that Miller, along with his celebrated contemporary Giles Grendey (d.1780), was involved in the export of cabinet-furniture to Europe.
A further kneehole desk originally belonging to William Dickson, Admiral of the Blue in George II's navy, and sold by a family descendent, Christie's London, 19 November 1992, lot 121 bears comparison with its concave central drawer flanked by 'commodes' with nests of drawers and folio racks and similarly burled timbers. Another bureau-cabinet from the Parry collection, sold Christie's London, 24 April 1997 shares the same arched profile to the feet and is fitted to the upper section with a similar concave door and removable compartments.
candle-brackets and carrying handles, reflects the fashion for moveable multi-purpose furniture introduced to London bedroom-aparements in the early eighteenth century, when St.Paul's Churchyeard was the center of the cabinet-making industry. A related bureau top with brass
candle-brackets featured on a chest of drawers sold Christie's London, 16 July 1953, lot 53.
This remarkable desk, distinguished by its finely mottled veneers and unusual concave door, may be compared to an elaborately fitted burr-walnut bureau-cabinet attributed to the maker Peter Miller of the Savoy, Strand and sold by Christie's London, 13 November 1997, lot 160. These two magnificent pieces compare in their carefully chosen exotically figured timbers and construction details. Another bureau-cabinet featuring the same timbers and mounts as the London cabinet bears the signature of this master cabinet-maker and the date 1724 (see C.Gilbert, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp.336-337, figs.644-645). Interestingly, this same piece is also inscribed in Spanish which indicates that Miller, along with his celebrated contemporary Giles Grendey (d.1780), was involved in the export of cabinet-furniture to Europe.
A further kneehole desk originally belonging to William Dickson, Admiral of the Blue in George II's navy, and sold by a family descendent, Christie's London, 19 November 1992, lot 121 bears comparison with its concave central drawer flanked by 'commodes' with nests of drawers and folio racks and similarly burled timbers. Another bureau-cabinet from the Parry collection, sold Christie's London, 24 April 1997 shares the same arched profile to the feet and is fitted to the upper section with a similar concave door and removable compartments.