A PAIR OF GEORGE II BRASS-INLAID MAHOGANY BACK-TO-BACK DESKS CIRCA...
Each top fitted with a book stand on ratchet support, one top additionally with a compartment for pen and ink, each frieze fitted with three mahogany fronted drawers above an arched kneehole flanked by a secret spring-released door opening to a short drawer
311⁄2 in. (80 cm.) high, 39 in. (99.1 cm.) wide, 261⁄2 in. (67.3 cm.) deep, each
Provenance
Possibly from Whitehall, Hertfordshire.
With Wood and Hogan, Inc., New York, NY.
Literature
E. Wenham, Antique Furniture for Modern Rooms, New York, 1948, p. 81.
Lot Essay
These unusual desks or commodes were originally designed to either be placed together, back-to-back, in the center of a room, as the unfinished backs are fitted with wooden 'tongues' to loosely join the two together, or to be placed in the piers between windows.
They belong to a small group of similarly conceived pairs of desk, or commodes, of which the most celebrated are those commissioned from John Boson by Lady Burlington, wife of the third Earl of Burlington, for the Garden Room at Chiswick House in 1753. Of similar overall form to the present examples, their design clearly illustrates the strong influence of William Kent, as their architectural profiles are more angular, and are richly ornamented with parcel-gilt carved ornament. The Chiswick 'tables', as they were described in Boson's account, are similar in both profile and carved ornament to at least seven others, including four complete pairs and three single tables which presumably have lost their companion pieces (See: Sotheby's, New York, 7 April 2004, lot 208).
The present desks, although of comparable fine cabinet-making and internal construction to these examples, do differ in a number of aspects suggesting a different cabinet maker to John Boson (fl. 1720 d. 1743) or Benjamin Goodison (c. 1700-1767), who has also been suggested in connection with the group as a whole. Their 'softer' and curved profile is very different, and the subtle feather-banding found on the tops and ornamenting the front indicates a cabinet-maker less concerned with architectural detail. A notable feature of the desks is the imaginative and free design of the otherwise plain inlaid-brass handle-plates and escutcheons.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
Each top fitted with a book stand on ratchet support, one top additionally with a compartment for pen and ink, each frieze fitted with three mahogany fronted drawers above an arched kneehole flanked by a secret spring-released door opening to a short drawer
311⁄2 in. (80 cm.) high, 39 in. (99.1 cm.) wide, 261⁄2 in. (67.3 cm.) deep, each
Provenance
Possibly from Whitehall, Hertfordshire.
With Wood and Hogan, Inc., New York, NY.
Literature
E. Wenham, Antique Furniture for Modern Rooms, New York, 1948, p. 81.
Lot Essay
These unusual desks or commodes were originally designed to either be placed together, back-to-back, in the center of a room, as the unfinished backs are fitted with wooden 'tongues' to loosely join the two together, or to be placed in the piers between windows.
They belong to a small group of similarly conceived pairs of desk, or commodes, of which the most celebrated are those commissioned from John Boson by Lady Burlington, wife of the third Earl of Burlington, for the Garden Room at Chiswick House in 1753. Of similar overall form to the present examples, their design clearly illustrates the strong influence of William Kent, as their architectural profiles are more angular, and are richly ornamented with parcel-gilt carved ornament. The Chiswick 'tables', as they were described in Boson's account, are similar in both profile and carved ornament to at least seven others, including four complete pairs and three single tables which presumably have lost their companion pieces (See: Sotheby's, New York, 7 April 2004, lot 208).
The present desks, although of comparable fine cabinet-making and internal construction to these examples, do differ in a number of aspects suggesting a different cabinet maker to John Boson (fl. 1720 d. 1743) or Benjamin Goodison (c. 1700-1767), who has also been suggested in connection with the group as a whole. Their 'softer' and curved profile is very different, and the subtle feather-banding found on the tops and ornamenting the front indicates a cabinet-maker less concerned with architectural detail. A notable feature of the desks is the imaginative and free design of the otherwise plain inlaid-brass handle-plates and escutcheons.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
