A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD CARLTON HOUSE DESK

The Property of The late COUNTESS FITZWILLIAM Sold by Order of the Executors

Details

A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD CARLTON HOUSE DESK
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN MCLEAN

The curved galleried superstructure with six panelled central drawers flanked by curved panelled doors and downswept sides to cedar-lined drawers, the central green leather-lined slide with hinged reading-slope, edged with running scroll, above three cedar-lined frieze drawers flanked by reeded panels, on turned tapering legs with milled collars with brass caps and castors, the underside of one drawer with an indistinct inscription, and, the interior inscribed Veneer bottom of pan... .. X band X strings betwixt X band X plinth, the underside with paper label inscribed in ink 475 FEX, the lion-masks replaced
56½in. (143.5cm.) wide; 41½in. (105cm.) high; 32in. (81cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This desk pattern evolved from one by George Hepplewhite (d.1786) illustrated in The Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices, 1793, pl. 21, and relates to one supplied to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (C. Musgrave, Regency Furniture, London, 1961, fig. 74). Its rosewood veneer and ormament, such as the Egyptian striated tablets, ringed lion-masks and reed-turned legs, are typical of the work of the cabinet-makers John McLean and Son, of Pancras Street and Upper Marylebone Street. Their label, dating from around 1800, appears on a related sectetaire-cabinet now at the Victoria & Albert Museum while a closely related desk has been recorded at Brympton D'Evercy, Somerset (S. Redburn, 'John McLean & and Son', Furniture History, 1978, pp. 31-7 and pls. 33A and 35A)

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