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Lot Essay
In her Catalogue of Commodes (p.96, fig.92), Lucy Wood confidently attributes a similar cylinder bureau (sold Christie's, London, 28 June 1984, lot 102) to the St. Martin's Lane workshop of John Cobb (d.1778). This example features a similar floral marquetry design on a characteristic basketweave parquetry background. Other side tables attributed to Cobb with notably similar marquetry include a pair of tables from the Iveagh Bequest at Kenwood House and another table at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Wilmington (see C. Streeter, 'Marquetry Tables from Cobb's Workshop', Furniture History, pp. 52-53, pl. 30A and 30B).
Other cylinder bureaux with only minor differences in form and decorative detail include one sold from the collection of Arthur Leidesdorf, Sotheby and Co., London, 27-28 June 1974, lot 121. Another from the collection of Mrs. John E. Rovensky was sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 19 January 1957, lot 952 and is illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, 1987, p.87, fig.359.
The desk once belonged to the Jones-Parry family at Madryn Castle, located in Buan, near Pwllheli, North Wales. Originally built for the Madryn family, the Jones-Parry family owned the castle from at least the 1830s at which time they ordered it's romantic baronial reconstruction. The contents of Madryn Castle were sold by the executors of the late W. C. Yale Jones-Parry in a house sale by Knight Frank and Rutley on 29-30 June 1910 but the desk does not appear in the sale catalogue. It was recorded with Mallett in 1929 who may have purchased it privately from the family. Madryn Castle is survived only by the roofless 17th century gatehouse as the Castle itself was demolished by the local authority in around 1968.
Other cylinder bureaux with only minor differences in form and decorative detail include one sold from the collection of Arthur Leidesdorf, Sotheby and Co., London, 27-28 June 1974, lot 121. Another from the collection of Mrs. John E. Rovensky was sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 19 January 1957, lot 952 and is illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, 1987, p.87, fig.359.
The desk once belonged to the Jones-Parry family at Madryn Castle, located in Buan, near Pwllheli, North Wales. Originally built for the Madryn family, the Jones-Parry family owned the castle from at least the 1830s at which time they ordered it's romantic baronial reconstruction. The contents of Madryn Castle were sold by the executors of the late W. C. Yale Jones-Parry in a house sale by Knight Frank and Rutley on 29-30 June 1910 but the desk does not appear in the sale catalogue. It was recorded with Mallett in 1929 who may have purchased it privately from the family. Madryn Castle is survived only by the roofless 17th century gatehouse as the Castle itself was demolished by the local authority in around 1968.