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Lot Essay
The distinctive early Neoclassical design of the legs, with their palmette-cabochon trails terminating in foliate sprays above reeded clasps, corresponds directly with the stand for a cabinet in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (w.65 - 1953; illustrated in D. Fitzgerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no.76). This latter cabinet-on-stand was originally in the Chinese Room at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, arguably the greatest English Rococo interior, which was commissioned by Ralph, 2nd Earl Verney (d.1792) between 1757 and 1771. A committed Whig who speculated in the East India Company, Verney turned to Luke Lightfoot (1722-1789) for the whimsical Chinoiserie interior, which was subsequently described by a disapproving Thomas Robinson, the architect who engineered the latters' dismissal in 1770, as such a Work as the World never saw. Robinson was responsible for transforming the West front at Claydon in a more refined Neoclassical taste to include a circular entrance hall and a ballroom, running to 256ft in total. This extension was to be shortlived, however, as the Earl's debts ran away with him and in 1784 the contents of the house were dispersed in London and Buckingham, whilst the newly emptied wing was pulled down following the Earl's death in 1792. Undoubtedly executed in the same workshop, this writing-table may conceivably also originally have formed part of the furnishings in the Neo-classical taste supplied under Robinson's direction for Claydon in the 1770's.
Thomas Chippendale senior is the only other cabinet-maker associated with work at Claydon, as he is referred to with his first partner James Rannie in 1766 and 1771. It is interesting to note, therefore, that three drawings for bookcases, possibly by Chippendale's own hand, remain in the Claydon House papers. This would appear to confirm the hypothesis that Verney was building a library at Claydon in the 1770's, a room for which a writing-table of this grandeur was undoubtedly intended.
Thomas Chippendale senior is the only other cabinet-maker associated with work at Claydon, as he is referred to with his first partner James Rannie in 1766 and 1771. It is interesting to note, therefore, that three drawings for bookcases, possibly by Chippendale's own hand, remain in the Claydon House papers. This would appear to confirm the hypothesis that Verney was building a library at Claydon in the 1770's, a room for which a writing-table of this grandeur was undoubtedly intended.