A PAIR OF EARLY GEORGE III MAHOGANY CHESTS-OF-DRAWERS

A closely related chest by London cabinet-maker Philip Bell (d. 1774) of 'The White Swan' bears his later rococo trade label designed by Matthias Darly (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 100, fig. 102). Interestingly, one of Bell's patrons, Nathaniel Ryder, later 1st Earl of Harrowby, employed many of London's top cabinet-makers; his account book of 1766 records "To Bell for 2 chests of Drawers for Shiplake" (his Oxfordshire house).