.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The desk's unusual form relates to a walnut chest of drawers in the Noel Terry Collection, circa 1705, which has a similar configuration of end drawers with false drawers in the front (P. Brown, The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, 1987, p. 70, fig. 70). When the folding top of the latter is opened out for writing, supported on slides, it would be inconvenient to use drawers positioned directly below and so they are ingeniously relocated to the sides where they are fitted for ink-wells and quills.
An Artist's Table, circa 1725, illustrated in R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture, 1954, vol. III, p. 186, fig. 1, similarly has three drawers fitted in the side.
An Artist's Table, circa 1725, illustrated in R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture, 1954, vol. III, p. 186, fig. 1, similarly has three drawers fitted in the side.