EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE I WALNUT BUREAU
EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Featherbanded throughout and with a crossbanded fallfront enclosing a fitted interior of pigeon-holes and drawers, with a secret drawer enclosed within a slide, above four graduating drawers, on shaped bracket feet, original handles, two of the drawers with a single hole for an old strap handle showing that some drawer timber was re-used from the workshop store or an earlier piece
35½ in.(90 cm.) high; 26¾ in. (68 cm.) wide; 17¼ in. (44 cm.) deep

Provenance

Percival Griffiths, Sandridgebury, Hertfordshire.
Purchased circa 1938 by R. W. Symonds from the estate of Percival Griffiths, for R. H. Turner, Greyfriars, Hog's Back, Guildford, Surrey, and thence by descent.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

PERCIVAL D. GRIFFITHS
The collection formed by Percival D. Griffiths, F.S.A (.1938), under the wise counsel of R. W. Symonds (1889-1958), is considered to be arguably the greatest collection of English Furniture formed last Century. Indeed, it was Griffiths' collection that provided the content for Symonds' seminal work English Furniture from Charles II to George II, 1929. The interiors at Sandridgebury are happily recalled in "Sandridgebury: The Country Residence of Percival D. Griffiths", published by Symonds in Antiques, March 1931, pp. 193-196. Symonds later published "Percival Griffiths, F.S.A.; A Memoir on a Great Collector of English Furniture", The Antique Collector, November-December 1943, pp. 163-169. Symond's was also a vital conduit in finding deserving homes for Griffiths' collection privately following the latter's death, turning to J.S. Sykes and Mr. Turner amongst others circa 1938.

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