ATTRIBUTED TO MAYHEW AND INCE, CIRCA 1775

This secretaire-bookcase can be confidently attributed to the pre-eminent cabinet-makers William Mayhew and John Ince. Most significantly, the use of yewwood with ebonized details as featured within the trompe l'oeil flutes of the frieze as well as the display of shaded and engraved marquetry are signature characteristics of their oeuvre. Paterae wheel medallions are found on a pair of serpentine commodes almost certainly supplied by the firm to the 2nd Viscount Palmerston for Broadlands, Hampshire (H. Roberts, 'Furniture at Broadlands - II', Country Life, 5 February 1981, p. 347, fig. 3). A similarly fluted frieze features on a satinwood and marquetry breakfront attributed to the firm and sold '50 Years of Collecting: The Decorative Arts of Georgian England', Christie's, London, 14 May 2003, lot 40. A pair of mahogany bookcases by Mayhew and Ince with carved fluted friezes was purchased by the Queen Mother for Clarence House from Olantigh, Kent. One of these appears in a photograph of the recently refurbished Lancaster Room, M. Hogg, 'Clarence House', The World of Interiors, October 2003, p.199.