A REGENCY MAHOGANY CARLTON HOUSE DESK

The 1796 design for this 'Carleton House Desk' features in the Estimate Sketch Book of Gillow of London and Lancaster, and derives, with minor variations, from Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s 'Gentleman's Writing Table' featured in their Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices, 2nd ed., 1793 (pl. 21). In that year interest in the elegant furnishings of Carlton House was promoted by the publication of Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book, which illustrated some interiors of the London mansion created by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV. Gillow's pattern, ordered from their London showrooms, was named after the large 'Writing Table', with a top which contained 'Drawers and 2 Cupboards', that had been invoiced in February 1790 by the Pall Mall court cabinet-maker John Kerr (d. 1808) (H. Roberts, 'The First Carlton House Table?', Furniture History, 1995, pp. 124-128). The present desk, which was ordered from London and manufactured in Lancaster, bears the inscription 'Nash, Oak Lodge'. It is therefore tempting to associate it with the architect John Nash (d. 1835), who was employed during this period at Richard Page's Middlesex estate, known as The Park. He was later architect to George, when Prince Regent, but already by 1798 he had exhibited at the Royal Academy a drawing of a magnificent conservatory dedicated to George as Prince of Wales (J. Summerson, The Life and Work of John Nash Architect, London, 1980, fig 7c).