Lot Essay
The clothes-press bears the fanciful label designed about 1760 by Matthias Darly for Philip Bell, cabinet-maker and upholder of the 'White Swan', St. Paul's Churchyard. The label also features on another of Bell's clothes-presses, bearing the same pattern of handles, while the same hollowed cornice pattern, enriched with a fretted ribbon, features on one of his labelled double chests-of-drawers (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, figs. 95, 96, 99).