THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A GERMAN BRASS-MOUNTED AND BRASS-INLAID MAHOGANY CYLINDER BUREAU-CABINET in the manner of David Roentgen, the central panelled pedestal flanked by a stepped rectangular cresting, the plain moulded frieze above two arcaded doors each enclosing a shelf and flanking an arcaded, glazed door with enamelled dished English dial with arabic numerals and months of the year, above a ribbon-tied laurel-spray and stepped pedestal, the arched backplate with lever inscribed Silence/L'Heure/A midi above a panelled roll-top enclosing a fitted interior with burgundy leather-lined slide, twelve variously-sized drawers and five simulated drawers around an arched pigeon-hole, above three short and two long graduated simulated panelled drawers between fluted columnar angles and with a panelled door enclosing a plain interior to each end, on guilloche-inlaid square tapering feet, restorations, previously with further superstucture, with depository labels inscribed PIMMS DEPOSITORY GUILDFORD and, indistinctly, MESSRS. TROLLOP & SONS ...440

Details
A GERMAN BRASS-MOUNTED AND BRASS-INLAID MAHOGANY CYLINDER BUREAU-CABINET in the manner of David Roentgen, the central panelled pedestal flanked by a stepped rectangular cresting, the plain moulded frieze above two arcaded doors each enclosing a shelf and flanking an arcaded, glazed door with enamelled dished English dial with arabic numerals and months of the year, above a ribbon-tied laurel-spray and stepped pedestal, the arched backplate with lever inscribed Silence/L'Heure/A midi above a panelled roll-top enclosing a fitted interior with burgundy leather-lined slide, twelve variously-sized drawers and five simulated drawers around an arched pigeon-hole, above three short and two long graduated simulated panelled drawers between fluted columnar angles and with a panelled door enclosing a plain interior to each end, on guilloche-inlaid square tapering feet, restorations, previously with further superstucture, with depository labels inscribed PIMMS DEPOSITORY GUILDFORD and, indistinctly, MESSRS. TROLLOP & SONS ...440

Lot Essay

The roll-top bureau, on commode base, is surmounted by a clock-centred and brass-inlaid cartonnier. The latter's Grecian stepped-plinth with tablet-bracket for bust or vase, is typical of the elegant antiuqe style invented in the 1780's by David Roentgen of Neuwied (d.1807), Europe's most celebrated cabinet-maker.

The pearl-wreathed clock-face in a golden triumphal-arched frame, is supported on a poetic-trophy of ribbon-tied laurels and set above a crepidoma-stepped plinth and tablet-pedestal fluted Doric columns correspond to those indented at the commode's corners. The design and quality of this clock is closely related to the oeuvre of Peter Kingzing (d.1816), who worked with Roentgen on many of his finest clocks and automata (see D. Fabian, Kinzing und Roentgen Uhren aus Neuweid, Wurzburg, 1983).

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