A MID-VICTORIAN OAK AND MARQUETRY PEDESTAL DESK
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A MID-VICTORIAN OAK AND MARQUETRY PEDESTAL DESK

ATTRIBUTED TO COLLIER & PLUCKNETT, CIRCA 1860

Details
A MID-VICTORIAN OAK AND MARQUETRY PEDESTAL DESK
ATTRIBUTED TO COLLIER & PLUCKNETT, CIRCA 1860
The rectangular top with gilt-tooled green leather-lined top with cube-inlaid edge above an inlaid frieze, each pedestal with four graduated drawers inlaid with chevrons, between faceted columns, the kneehole with a recessed undertier, on bracket feet, originally with a superstructure, originally a dressing-table; with a pair of two-drawer portable boxes, originally fitted in the corners of the top
30¾ in. (78 cm.) high; 54 in. (137 cm.) wide; 22½ in. (57 cm.) deep
The portable drawer-boxes: 9¾ in. (24.5 cm.) high; 13¾ in. (35 cm.) wide; 9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) deep
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The desk, with its geometric mosaics, reflects the influence of Bruce Talbert (d. 1881), who advertised his establishment in London in the mid-1860s with the publication of Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, 1867/8. His furniture designs, were manufactured by firms such as Holland & Sons, Gillows, Jackson & Graham, and the Leeds firm of Marsh, Jones and Cribb, and were exhibited at the Paris 1867 Exhibition, The London 1873 exhibition and the Paris 1878 Exhibition. A related 'gothic' desk pattern was published in 1866 in Richard Charles's, The Cabinet-Maker's Book of Designs.

A pair of cabinets of similar character to this desk with chequered and ebony inlay on an oak ground are at Tyntesfield, Somerset. Supplied between 1875-1880 for Matilda Blanche Gibbs following the death of her husband William Gibbs, philanthropist and great builder of Tyntesfield, who had died in 1875. They bear the label of the Leamington Spa cabinet-makers Collier and Plucknett, whose partnership was dissolved in 1880 (J. Miller, Fertile Fortune: The Story of Tyntesfield, London, 2003, p. 111).

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