There are a number of features of this bonheur-du-jour that link it to firm of Mayhew and Ince but which do not justify a full attribution. Of its stylistic features, it has been suggested that the use of ebonised borders, particularly on furniture without ormolu mounts, was unique to the firm (see: The Dictionary of English Furniture, Leeds, 1986, p. 593). This characteristic is here combined with a deliberately stiff apron profile. Among the furniture that the firm supplied to Chatsworth in 1786 were 'two large oval satinwood Pembroke tables riband trophies of musical instruments a shelf under'. These tables have a very similar apron to this bonheur-du- jour and the design is described as 'belatedly rococo' in I. Hall, 'A Neo-classical episode at Chatsworth', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, p. 412. This is likely to have been a reflection of contemporary fashion. The shape is shared by the group of commodes now attributed to Thomas Chippendale the Younger that are of similar date (see: L. Wood, 'Lord Walsingham and the Younger Chippendale', Antique Collecting, February 1987, pp. 38-41).
The second element that connects the firm with this bonheur-du-jour is provenance. A second example of exactly this model was sold from the collection of Mr and Mrs Alex Abrahams, Sotheby's London, 22 June 1979, lot 85. Its provenance was given as Ham House, Surrey This is a house that is now suspected as having had connections with the firm; a breakfront bookcase from there, which had several features taken directly from the Universal System of Household Furniture, was sold by the Executors of the late Mrs H. Pelham Clinton, in these Rooms, 24 October 1991, lot 192. A china-cabinet which is also in their manner remains at Ham and is illustrated in G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture, London, 1987, p. 119.