CIRCA 1750

Details

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY KNEEHOLE DESK
CIRCA 1750
The shaped rectangular crossbanded top with gadrooned edge with convex pedestal sections and concave kneehole section, above a long mahogany-lined frieze drawer and three mahogany-lined drawers in each pedestal and a recessed crossbanded door enclosing a shelf in the kneehole, on a ribbon-and-rosette moulded plinth, with four centrally-located anti-friction castors, the handles apparently original
31½ in. (80 cm.) high; 45½ in. (115.5 cm.) wide; 28 in. (71 cm.) deep

Provenance

Sir John Prestige (1884-1962), Bourne Park, Kent (+); Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1964, lot 96 (£2,100 to P. Robinson).

Literature

R. W. Symonds, The Present State of English Furniture, London, 1921, p. 95, fig. 96.

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

With its serpentined form, recessed commode and stepped plinth, it relates to 'Bureau Table' patterns in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director, 1754 (pl. 42); and W. Ince and J. Mayhew, The Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762 (pl. 42). The moulded top's carved enrichment of antique-fluted reed gadroons, as well as the plinth's flowered ribbon-guilloche also feature on a writing-table, with central recess, supplied in 1762 for George III's Buckingham House by the court cabinet maker William Vile (d. 1767) (O. Brackett, English Furniture Illustrated, 1927, fig. 176).

The present table was amongst the furniture assembled in the early 20th century by the furniture historian R. W. Symonds (d. 1958) for Sir John Prestige (Symonds, op. cit.).

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