A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD SECRETAIRE-CHIFFONIER

This elegant secretaire cabinet, with its brass-inlaid highly figured rosewood and combination of Neoclassical and Egyptian motifs, is characteristic of the work of the London cabinet-makers John McLean and Son (active 1770-1815). Although the secretaire cabinet is unlabeled, an almost identical example with their trade label is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, Leeds, 1996, p.315 fig.596).

This design was obviously a popular one, as at least three other virtually identical examples are known. One is illustrated in Simon Redburn, 'John McLean and Son', Furniture History, 1978, pl. 33. A second was sold in Dealing With Excellence, a Celebration of Hotspur and Jeremy; Christie’s, London, 20 November 2008, lot 119 and a third with slightly different doors was sold, by the late Algernon Rothman, Esq., Christie's, London, 5 October 1995, lot 214.