This rare bureau, with particularly fine mosaic compartments of filigreed foliage of acanthus-wrapped ribbons in the Louis Quatorze manner, relates closely to one sold by Sir John Ramsden, Bt., in these Rooms, 23 May 1932, lot 92.
Similarly shaped marquetry compartments feature on the doors of a cabinet from the collection of Captain H.L. Bucknall, sold in these Rooms, 29 March 1984, lot 165. They also feature on the door of a cabinet commissioned by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (d. 1748), and likely to have been part of the furniture for which Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715), 'Cabinet Maker in Ordinary' to William III and Mary II, received seven payments in 1690-91. Jensen specialised in such 'fine Markatree' and 'Inlay in wallnuttree' (Dr. C. Shrimpton et al., Syon Park, 1998, p. 28; G. Jackson-Stops, 'Furniture at Petworth', Apollo, May 1977, p. 369, and The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 486).