A GEORGE III MAHOGANY DRESSING-CHEST

Closely related dressing-chests have sold Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 4 July 2002, lot 163 (£17,925) and Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 22 May 2019, lot 98 (£10,000). Furthermore a related serpentine dressing-commode, attributable to the ‘Dumfries House cabinet-maker’ – possibly Thomas Chippendale sold from A Town House in Mayfair; Christie's, London, 20 November 2008, lot 658.

This bureau-dressing's architectural form is embellished by its brass patera handle-plates and scroll handles. The handles of this chest relate to a pattern used on other chests by Chippendale. It shares the architectural form associated with some Chippendale designs of this period, for example a design of different form, a bureau-dressing-table pattern, featured in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, pl. XLI which is also architectural in concept. The present table is equipped with bureau-lopers to support the mirrored and well-equipped dressing-compartment and accompanying writing-slide concealed in its top drawer.