Fine and rare George II period mahogany kneehole desk/dressing table

Fine and rare George II period mahogany kneehole desk/dressing table;  the one long and six small drawers with finely-worked oak linings and original brass lattice-fret handles, surrounding a recessed cupboard and a shallow drawer in the arch;  standing on two pairs of boldly carved paw feet with fetlocks and with ogee bracket feet at the rear; the moulded top with re-entrant front corners. Circa 1755

This knee-hole has been purchased from an East Anglian family who acquired it from a well-known dealer in the early 1950s.  It is a fine piece of furniture and has many good features but most important of these are the feet with the carved fetlock.

I have researched this feature and there are very few examples of it;  Ralph Edwards in ‘The Dictionary of English Furniture’ illustrates a walnut bureau-cabinet on claw and ball feet which are as near a comparison as I can find.  Although one might expect to find a foot like this in examples of Irish furniture, there are none illustrated in ‘Irish Furniture’ by the Knight of Glin and James Peill’s comprehensive volume of 2005.

Comparisons notwithstanding this is, without doubt, “a bit of a gentleman”, a fine example of mid-18^th century English furniture.

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Condition report

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