This elegant reed-edged table with hermed feet is designed in the George III antique manner and is typical of Messrs. Gillows work at that period. The design of secretaire-drawers appears on a number of stamped Gillow 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 developed from that of a secretaire writing-table supplied by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1775) for Paxton House, Berwickshire (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, Christie's London, 9 April 1922, lot 163. This form of signature . BRAMAH PATENT was employed by this celebrated locksmith from 1784-98