A Rare George III Writing Table

A charming little table reminiscent of some of the furniture at Dumfries House.  The table is of superbly patinated mahogany having a pull-out slide with original axe head handles and a drawer to the side.  Below are pierced brackets to the top of each leg and a shaped stretcher.

The table is identical in form but with minor variations, including the handle, a moulding to the corner of the legs and a moulded edge, to a table from the Messer Collection thought to have been commissioned by the 4^th Earl of Shaftesbury for St Giles’s House.

The square legs are chamfered on the inner edge and joined to the rectangular frame by French Rococo ‘C’ scrolls which relate to a cabinet frame illustrated in Thomas Chippendale, the Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director, 1754, pl. LXXXVI.

Lord Shaftesbury’s first wife, Lady Susannah Noel (d. 1758) was a subscriber to the first edition (1754) of the Director.  A number of the pieces sold from St Giles’s house over the years have born a close enough resemblance to Chippendale designs to suggest Chippendale, along with Hallett, Goodison and Vile & Cobb were supplying furniture to Lord & Lady Shaftesbury.

Reference.

The Samuel Messer Sale, Christies, 5/12/1991, Lot 114