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Lot Essay
Executed in the French manner propagated by cabinet-makers such as John Cobb (d.1778) and Thomas Chippendale (d.1778), who supplied a writing-table of similar character to Sir Rowland Winn for Nostell Priory as early as 1766 (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl.354), this form of serpentined and hinged table-top concealing dressing-compartments and a mirror subsequently featured as a 'Lady's Dressing Table' pattern in Messrs. A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, pl.2. It also featured on the trade card for 'Jno Macklane Cabinet Maker and UPHOLDER in Little Newport Street near Leicester Square London', and this is almost certainly the same cabinet-maker as the more famous John McLean of Upper Marylebone Street (S. Redburn, 'John McLean & Son', Furniture History Society Journal, Leeds, 1978, pl.31a).
A closely related table, but with ogee-shaped apron, was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 13 April 1989, lot 68 (7,700), whilst two further tables of similar form, but with fixed, galleried tops, are illustrated in F. Lewis Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, figs. 21-2.
A closely related table, but with ogee-shaped apron, was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 13 April 1989, lot 68 (7,700), whilst two further tables of similar form, but with fixed, galleried tops, are illustrated in F. Lewis Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, figs. 21-2.