ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN COBB, CIRCA 1775

The fluidity of form, use of contrasting timbers, sans traverse drawers and delicate marquetry recalls the eminent craftsmanship of the St. Martin’s Lane cabinet maker, John Cobb (d. 1778). The serpentine shape of this French ‘picturesque’ dressing table relates to that of a pair of card tables attributed to Cobb, sold Christie’s, London, 14 December 1967 (C. Streeter, `Marquetry tables from Cobb’s workshop’, Furniture History, vol. X, 1974, pp. 52-53). A serpentine commode, attributed to Cobb, at Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire exhibits a similar successful fusion of light and dark timbers, and asymmetrically shaped and cross-bordered cartouches that follow the overall form (NT 959741). The naturalistic floral marquetry is finely engraved with a black mastic to increase the pictorial illusion, the designs possibly deriving from a French pattern book such as Le Livre de Principes de Fleurs by Louis Tessier, published in the 1750s.