A GEORGE III SATINWOOD, PADOUK AND TULIPWOOD BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE

This bookcase is possibly by the Golden Square cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew (d. 1811) and William Ince (d. 1804), one of the leading marquetry specialists of the period, based on stylistic affinities with furniture from their identified commissions. Related oval paterae are found on a pair of carved mahogany corner tables with ebonised borders, attributed to Mayhew & Ince, c. 1780, supplied to the 4th Duke of Marlborough, and comparable, simulated fluting in marquetry appears on a pair of rosewood and marquetry commodes, part of the same commission (H. Roberts, ‘Nicely Fitted Up’: Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough, Furniture History, 1994, pp. 138-139, figs. 27 and 29). The Marlborough commodes also demonstrate the firm’s use of striking and contrasting veneers featured on this bookcase, exemplified in a pair of commodes of 1761, commissioned by the 6th Earl of Coventry, at Croome Court, Worcestershire (Earl of Coventry and Trustees of the Croome Estate).