ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM TROTTER, CIRCA 1820-30

This 'Grecian' breakfast table can be attributed to the leading Edinburgh cabinet-maker and upholsterer, William Trotter (d. 1834) of 9 Princes Street, on stylistic grounds. The heavily reeded scroll angles of the triform terminating in a carved spiral relate to the serpentine scroll arms on '4 mahogany Caned Library Chairs' supplied by William Trotter to George Home (d. 1820) for the library at Paxton House, Berwickshire in 1814, and together with 'quilling' referring to applied vertical reeding of friezes and foliate capped feet are indicative of Trotter's style in the 'Modern Athens', the 'quilling' featuring on 'A Grecian Stand' and 'A square rosewood Table frame' at Paxton (Francis Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1983, pls. 51, 55A and 55B).