ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN MCLEAN AND SONS

The ebony 'chiffonier' commode, 'buhl-inlaid' and ormolu-enriched, reflects the Louis Quatorze style adopted for fashionable drawing-rooms in the early 19th Century. The reeded pillar and trellised rail of its mirrored 'chiffonier' book-stand, as well as the echinous framed panels correspond to that of a rosewood secretaire, which bears the label adopted around 1800 by John McLean & Son of Upper Marylebone Street, specialists in 'Elegant Parisian Furniture' (see C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, p. 38, figs. 596 and 591). A two-tiered 'chiffonier' book-stand of this pattern features on a closely related 'buhl-inlaid' rosewood chiffonier commode. The latter, which also has canted and truss-scrolled pilasters terminating in Grecian-scrolled stump feet, has also been attributed to McLean, whose work was illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803 (pl. 65) (see S. Redburn, 'John McLean and Son', Furniture History, 1978, pl. 34B).