Lot Essay
In 1759 Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) of St. Martin's Lane supplied a 'library table' of this pattern to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries for Dumfries House, Scotland, and invoiced it on May 5th as 'A Mahog; Library=Table of very fine wood the top cover'd wt. best black leather, a Writing drawer, at one End wt. a double rising slider cover'd, & drawers & Cupboards in the sides & strong triple wheel castors ... £2.-.-.' (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 138 and vol. II, figs. 431 and 432). In the same year he engraved a desk of this pattern, with plinth-supported pedestals and pairs of handles fitted at the ends above moulded panels with hollowed corners, and this was published in his The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 3rd ed., 1762, pl. LXXVII.
The same 'picturesque' fretted handle-plate, incorporating shells and roses emblematic of Venus, features in an 18th Century escutcheon pattern at the Victoria and Albert Museum (N. Goodison, 'Metal-work Pattern Books', Furniture History, Leeds, 1975, fig. 29, no. 343). They also appear on a related desk sold anonymously Sotheby's London, 17 June 1983, lot 95, while the same pattern of looped handle features on a desk also sold anonymously Sotheby's London, 14 February 1992, lot 120.
The same 'picturesque' fretted handle-plate, incorporating shells and roses emblematic of Venus, features in an 18th Century escutcheon pattern at the Victoria and Albert Museum (N. Goodison, 'Metal-work Pattern Books', Furniture History, Leeds, 1975, fig. 29, no. 343). They also appear on a related desk sold anonymously Sotheby's London, 17 June 1983, lot 95, while the same pattern of looped handle features on a desk also sold anonymously Sotheby's London, 14 February 1992, lot 120.