POSSIBLY BY PETER MILLER

Details

A GEORGE I BRASS-MOUNTED BURR-WALNUT BUREAU-CABINET
Possibly by Peter Miller
Feather-banded overall, the rectangular cavetto cornice above a pair of quarter-veneered doors enclosing an arrangement of eighteen variously-sized drawers, each with an engraved brass roundel with a number or a letter and two secret compartments, the sides with shaped carrying-handles, the bureau section with a hinged slope enclosing a fitted interior with eleven variously-sized small walnut-lined drawers and six pigeon-holes, each pigeon-hole with a veneered paper -weight, the drawers and weights with conforming engraved brass roundels, above a central sliding well concealing three secret drawers, flanked on each side by a smaller sliding well, each with a secret drawer,with a brown leather-lined writing-surface, the sides with conforming carrying- handles, the lower section with a pair of doors enclosing three columns each of three drawers and with conforming engraved brass roundels, the sides with conforming carrying-handles, on later shaped bracket feet, minor restorations
42 in. (106.5 cm.) wide; 73¾ in. (187.5 cm.) high; 24½ in. (61.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Probably supplied to Thomas Tipping, Esq. (d.1755), Ardwick, Manchester.
Thence by descent to his son, Thomas Tipping, Esq. (d.1815).
Thence by descent to his sixth child, Thomas Tipping, Esq.
Thence by descent to William Whitacre Tipping, Esq. (d.1889) who purchased Bold Hall, near Warrington, Lancashire in 1859.
Thence by descent, along with the contents of Bold Hall, to his 1st cousin, Harriet, wife of The Reverend J.I.P. Wyatt, Vicar of Hawley, Surrey.
Thence by descent to their fourth child, Arthur Wyatt, Esq.
Thence by descent to his eldest daughter, Miriam, mother of the present owner.

Lot Essay

This magnificent bureau-cabinet, with exotically-figured walnut enriched with fine brass-work, may possibly be by Peter Miller of the Savoy, Strand. The signature of this master cabinet-maker of George I's reign features on a related bureau-cabinet, together with the date 1724 and a Spanish inscription, which indicates that, like his celebrated contemporary, Giles Grendey (d.1780), he was involved in the export of cabinet-furniture to Europe. Apart from the superb quality of the mottled-marble walnut tablet-framed with mosaic-chequer ribbons, both cabinets are triple-sectioned with carrying-handles for ease of transport, and are fitted with the same patterned brass-work and matching elements of the interior drawer arrangement (the central arrangement of the interior of the bureau section is virtually indentical). The brass-work and the latter's cornice pattern also corresponds to some recently discovered bureau-cabinet drawings executed in the early 1720s by craftsmen sent to train in London by Peter the Great (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 337, fig. 647 and F. Martynov, 'A Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p. 95). This library bureau-cabinet, with its rare form of 'commode' base, has not only been preserved in remarkable condition but even retains its pigeon-hole paper-weights.

Interestingly, similar escutcheons appear on a walnut cabinet-on-stand at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. It was altered and remodelled by James Newton for Henry, 10th Earl and 1st Marquess of Exeter, sometime before 1804, using a walnut cabinet circa 1700 (G. Ellwood, 'James Newton', Furniture History, 1995, p. 141, fig. 9).

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