Both Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co and Thomas Sheraton issued patterns for this popular form of 'Writing Table', known as a Carlton House desk in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793 (pl. LX). One illustrated in the 1798 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of London and Lancaster also features curved doors inlaid with tablets with hollowed corners as in the present example, although the former's doors were hinged at the opposite side (see L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs, Royston, 1995, fig. 50).