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Lot Essay
The table is executed in the French manner propagated by cabinet-makers such as John Cobb (d.1778) and Thomas Chippendale (d.1778), who supplied a writing-table of similar character to Sir Rowland Winn for Nostell Priory as early as 1766 (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl.354). This form of serpentined table-top concealing dressing-compartments and a mirror subsequently featured as a 'Lady's Dressing Table' pattern in Messrs. A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, pl.2. It also featured on the trade card for 'Jon Macklane Cabinet Maker and UPHOLDER in Little Newport Street near Leicester Square London', almost certainly the same cabinet-maker as the more famous John McLean of Upper Marylebone Street (S. Redburn, 'John McLean & Son', Furniture History Society Journal, Leeds, 1978, pl.31a).
A closely related table, but without the firescreen was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 13 April 1989, lot 68 (£7,700), while another dressing-table of this form from the estate of David Berg, Esq., was sold in these Rooms, 21 October 1999, lot 87. Two further tables of similar form are illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, figs. 21-2.
A closely related table, but without the firescreen was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 13 April 1989, lot 68 (£7,700), while another dressing-table of this form from the estate of David Berg, Esq., was sold in these Rooms, 21 October 1999, lot 87. Two further tables of similar form are illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, figs. 21-2.