This desk is designed in the George III antique manner and is typical of Messrs. Gillow's work at the period. The design of secretaire-drawers appears on a number pf Gollow-stamped pedestal desks, including one shown on the cover of The Antique Collector, May 1987, while the double-layered interior appears recognisably complete in a design by Thomas Shearer in the Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices, London, 1788, pl. 12. The form, however, may well have been developed from that of a secretaire writing-table supplied by Thomas Chippendale (d.1775) for Paxton House, Berwickshire and sold by Mrs Home-Robertson, Christie's London, 9 December 1971, lot 114 and illustrated in C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 239, fig. 438. A related secretaire was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 9 April 1992, lot 163