A Regency brass-inlaid rosewood secretaire cabinet

A Regency brass-inlaid rosewood secretaire cabinet, the rectangular top with a pierced galleried shelf with trellis work on the sides, above a secretaire drawer, banded with brass palm leaves on an ebony ground, enclosing nine satinwood shelves flanking four pigeon holes, with a red leather-inset fall front writing surface, the lower section comprising silk-lined trellis panelled doors, all on ormolu lions’ paw feet, decorated overall with classical palmettes and anthemion, the later locks stamped ‘Turners W. Hampton Patent’. English, c1810.

Footnote: A pattern for this secretaire was entitled a ‘Lady’s Secretary’ and featured in Thomas Sheraton’s, ‘Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book’, 1791-3, Part III, pl XLIII. However various elements in the style and ornament of this piece relate to the work of John McLean & Son, Marylebone Street subscribers to Thomas Sheraton’s 1803 ‘Cabinet Dictionary’. For a related secretaire by McLean in the Victoria and Albert Museum see C Gilbert, ‘Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840.’ Leeds, 1996, fig. 596.

Provenance: The Marquess of Bristol and by descent to the late Frederick, 7th Marquess of Bristol, Ickworth, Suffolk, from whom bought privately by the present owner and kept at Ellerslie House.