Unusual Mahogany Desk attributed to Thomas Chippendale

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Unusual Mahogany Desk attributed to Thomas Chippendale

About the Item

The rectangular top enclosed by a pair of hinged panels which fold out to rest against the sides, and a shaped section at the front which folds down, the interior with the original faded green baize lining, the central reading flap with detachable reading slide, the front of the desk with three drawers in the frieze and three graduated drawers to each pedestal, all with their original brass swan-neck handles, the knee-hole with a mahogany panel towards the back, the rectangular top enclosed by a pair of hinged panels which fold out to rest against the sides, and a shaped section at the front which folds down, the interior with the original faded green baize lining, the central reading flap with detachable reading slide, the front of the desk with three drawers in the frieze and three graduated drawers to each pedestal, all with their original brass swan-neck handles, the knee-hole with a mahogany panel towards the back, the reverse with a pair of panelled cupboard door s enclosing, on one side, twelve pigeon-holes with distinctive over-lapping double circular boxwood alphabetical labels, and folio divisions on the other, on a moulded plinth base, each pedestal with two, centrally-mounted large brass triple-wheel castors. Circa 1760. Literature: The most unusual form of the top of this desk appears to have only one other counterpart, an unprovenanced library table illustrated in Ralph Edwards and Percy Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, which has just the same configuration of folding top panels and shaped fall-front section in the frieze. The quality of both the materials and the construction of this desk suggest that it was made in one of the very best workshops of the time. The attribution to Chippendale’s workshop is based principally on the very particular design of castor and the placing of the castors beneath the pedestals. The form is of the main wheel of the castor revolving on a circular brass back-plate by means of two smaller wheels moving within a groove, a most distinctive design, which was used by Chippendale on a marquetry library table supplied to Harewood House, Yorkshire, now at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, and on another desk supplied to Dumfries House, Ayrshire in 1759. Chippendale’s invoices for both of these desks particularly describe the castors used, and their placing, two only to each pedestal, centrally mounted, rather than four, one in each corner, has been described as an idiosyncracy ‘apparently unique’ to Chippendale’s workshop. Furthermore, the plain red wash on the underside of the pedestals of the present desk, is the same as that seen on much of the furniture supplied by Chippendale to Dumfries House, and the form of the mahogany-fronted folio divisions on the present desk is the same as those of the Dumfries desk. The handles to the drawers, admittedly not of an unusual form, are nonetheless the same as those used on a documented Chippendale clothes-presses at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire and Paxton House, Berwickshire, and the original faded green baize of the interior of this desk, a rare survival, is very similar to that on known Chippendale pieces, and frequently itemised on Chippendale’s invoice Attributed to THOMAS CHIPPENDALE (1718-1779)

Dimensions:
Height: 37.01 in (94 cm)Width: 0.56 in (1.41 cm)Depth: 35.83 in (91 cm)
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
18th Century and Earlier
Date of Manufacture:
c. 1760
Condition:
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 91151stDibs: LU102481057642