AN EARLY VICTORIAN OAK LIBRARY DESK

The antiquarian oak library table, combining Elizabethan and French/antique taste in the eclectic William IV manner, has an octagon compartment top; while the sunk tablets of its conforming plinth-supported 'commode' pedestals, flanking a central recess, are sculpted with gothic ornament. Likewise, the table's frieze drawers have sculpted bas relief escutcheons, in place of ormolu, while the 'commodes' display heraldic escutcheons flanking end tablets that are cusped and quatrefoiled in Louis Douze fashion as popularised by A. W. Pugin's, Details of Ancient Timber Houses of the 15th and 16th Centuries, 1836. An early Victorian oak library desk with similar panelled sides and canted pedestals was recently sold, 'Fasque: The Scottish Seat of the Gladstones', Christie's house sale, London, 7 May 2008, lot 28 (£20,900 including premium).