ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE OAKLEY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The table may form part of a large documented commission supplied by George Oakley for Charles Madryll Cheere at Papworth Hall, Cambridge, after 1809. A games table of virtually identical form from Papworth Hall, subsequently inherited by Mrs. Stileman is illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1954, vol. III, p. 202, fig. 42. A nest of tables also probably from this commission with the same distinctive brass inlay in ebony on a calamander ground was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 21 January 1999, lot 476.

George Oakley (d.1840) worked in partnership with various cabinet-makers including George Shackleton and George Seddon, producing furniture in the Grecian taste and specializing in 'buhl' inlay (Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp.658-660).