Regency Brass-Inlaid Rosewood Secretaire Cabinet 1810

A Regency brass-inlaid rosewood secretaire cabinet, the rectangular top with a pierced galleried shelf with trellis work on the sides, above a secretaire drawer, banded with brass palm leaves on an ebony ground, enclosing nine satinwood shelves flanking four pigeon holes. 

With a red leather-inset fall front writing surface, the lower section comprising silk-lined trellis panelled doors, all on ormolu lions’ paw feet, decorated overall with classical palmettes and anthemion, the later locks stamped ‘Turners W. Hampton Patent’.

English, circa 1810.

Provenance: The Marquess of Bristol and by descent to the late Frederick, 7th Marquess of Bristol, Ickworth, Suffolk, from whom bought privately by the present owner and kept at Ellerslie House.

Footnote: A pattern for this secretaire was entitled a ‘Lady’s Secretary’ and featured in Thomas Sheraton’s, ‘Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book’, 1791-3, Part III, pl XLIII.

However various elements in the style and ornament of this piece relate to the work of John McLean & Son, Marylebone Street subscribers to Thomas Sheraton’s 1803 ‘Cabinet Dictionary’.

For a related secretaire by McLean in the Victoria and Albert Museum see C Gilbert, ‘Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840.’ Leeds, 1996, fig. 596.

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This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance