Thomas Moore
Head of Department
Lot 39TP
A George III mahogany writing table after a design by Thomas Chippendale
18 December 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £7,012.50 inc. premium
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A George III mahogany writing table after a design by Thomas Chippendale
Circa 1760, of rectangular form with canted front angles, with a 'Chinoiserie' blind fretwork frieze incorporating one long drawer, with a baize-lined sliding top inset with an adjustable hinged ratcheted writing surface, enclosing six compartments and a swivel hinged stationery drawer to one side, on twinned columnar front legs and two square section rear legs each headed by interlaced scrolled spandrels, terminating in block feet, on castors, 118cm wide x 66cm deep x 79cm high, (46in wide x 25 1/2in deep x 31in high)
Footnotes
The offered lot closely follows a design, originally published in 1754, which was produced by Thomas Chippendale and features in his groundbreaking work, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director, No. LXXIII. Although the present lot is virtually identical to this drawing it has not been possible to attribute this table to Chippendale's workshop. This is due to there being no available provenance for the table, combined with an absence of easily identifiable Chippendale characteristics such as S-shaped keyholes, short grain kickers or a thin red wash to give a few relevant examples.
Also, because of the huge popularity and influence of all three editions of the 'Director', Chippendale's designs from that publication were widely copied and imitated across Great Britain, particularly during the period 1755-70 making the task of attribution even more arduous.
