CIRCA 1760 - 80

The bureau-dressing table or kneehole desk derives directly from a pattern in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet- Maker's Director, 1755, pl. XLI, and illustrates the way in which Chinese cabinet-makers successfully emulated western designs, whether from the pattern books or from actual items of furniture, and mounted with paktong handles that are also of English pattern. The table would have been a desirable object given its versatility, combining the functions of a dressing and writing-tables.
A similar table is illustrated in Carl Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1991, p. 228 and p. 230, pl. 82.