Lot 38
38
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A GEORGE II WALNUT AND BURR-WALNUT CHEST

CIRCA 1730-40

Details
A GEORGE II WALNUT AND BURR-WALNUT CHEST
CIRCA 1730-40
The rectangular caddy-moulded cross and feather-banded quarter-veneered top with re-entrant corners, above a green baize-lined slide and two short drawers simulated as three drawers and three long graduated feather-banded drawers with cock-beading attached to the carcase, one end with a drawer with a compartment with divisions for ink-wells and a drawer, the other end with a simulated drawer, the sides with brass carrying-handles, on replaced bracket feet, the veneer on the back apparently original, handles original
31½ in. (80 cm.) high; 34½ in. (87.5 cm.) wide; 19½ in. (49.5 cm.) deep
Provenance
The late R. F. Lambe, Esq., 40a Connaught Street, London, W2; Christie's, London, 29 November 1951, lot 134 (£315 to R. A. Lee).
with Ronald A. Lee, London.
The late Mrs Charles Stuart; Christie's, London, 1 April 1993, lot 105.
Literature
A. Bowett, English Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p. 101 & figs. 3:14 & 3:15.
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.

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Lot Essay

This chest was held in such high esteem by John Parry that he felt he could not let it go into his first collection sale at Christie's in April 1997. Adam Bowett has suggested a date of manufacture of circa 1730-40 on the basis that the cockbeaded mouldings applied to the carcase are unlikely to be earlier than 1730 and the thin-railed construction suggests it was unlikely to have been made after 1740. The drawer on the right end is fitted for inkwells and pounce-pots suggesting that the chest's intended function was primarily for writing.


Although this chest was intended for writing, chests with a slide fitted above the top drawer may have been intended as dressing-tables: the Royal cabinet-maker Benjamin Goodison supplied 'three Walnuttree Dressing Tables upon Castors with Large Drawers to the Bottoms and a Sliding Tables to each of them ... £15.0.0.' for the Princesses Royal, Amelia and Caroline at St James's Palace, 1730 (Bowett, op. cit., p. 106, note 21).

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