AN ENGLISH MAHOGANY KNEEHOLE DESK

IN THE MANNER OF JOHN BOSON, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Details

AN ENGLISH MAHOGANY KNEEHOLE DESK
IN THE MANNER OF JOHN BOSON, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Of canted form, with veined grey marble top, the pilasters headed by lions' masks, on leather casters
35 in. (89 cm.) high, 47¼ in. (120 cm.) wide, 22½ in. (57 cm.) deep

Provenance

W. St. John Hazledine, Abbeyforgate, Shrewsbury.
Purchased by Henry Huntington from Partridge, Lewis & Simmons, London in 1910.

Literature

Specimens of Old English Furniture in the Possession of Partridge, Lewis & Simmons, n.d., pl. XXX.

Lot Essay

This desk closely copies the 18th century prototypes by the carver John Boson (d. 1743). The celebrated 'owl' tables which share this general form were supplied by Boson for the Summer Parlour at Chiswick House in 1735 (see T. Rosoman, 'The decoration and use of the principal apartments at Chiswick House 1727-70', Burlington Magazine, October 1985). A closely related desk from Viscount Downe's collection at Wynham Abbey, Yorkshire, is illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, Metropolitan Furniture of the Georgian Years, New York, 1988, p. 78, pl. 44, fig. 93, while a further example is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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