A Regency brass-mounted and mahogany library desk, circa 1815, in the manner of John Mclean

The mask in the centre of the frieze is of a type found in similar form on a number of pieces associated with John Mclean, examples of which are illustrated in Simon Redburn ‘John Mclean and Son’, Furniture History Journal, vol. XIV, 1978, pls. 33b, 34a-b, and 40a. Masks of this type also appear on a pair of writing tables recorded at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, illustrated in Christopher Hussey, English Country Houses, Early Georgian, 1715-1760, 1995, p. 71., pl. 95; another writing table sold Christie’s London, 9^th April 1996, lot 100; and a further example illustrated in C. Claxton Stephens and S. Whittington, 18^th century Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, 1983, p. 170-171.

For an example sold at auction of identical form, but in rosewood, see Sotheby’s New York, 18^th October, 1997, lot 131.

The firm of McLean and Son was established in London around 1770, trading from premises in Little Newport Street, Leicester Square, until 1783. By 1790 the firm had moved to 55 Upper Marylebone Street, later expanding to occupy premises in both Pancras Street and Upper Terrace and continuing in business until 1825. John McLean and Son were cabinet-makers of the highest calibre, patronised by such leading connoisseurs as the 5th Earl of Jersey, for whom they worked extensively at Middleton Park, Oxfordshire, and the Earl's London mansion in Berkeley Square. In Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet Dictionary of 1803, McLean and Son are listed among the foremost English cabinet-makers of the period, and it is some indication of the esteem in which they were held that Sheraton himself made use of one of their designs for a 'pouch table', which he illustrated in the Dictionary (pl. 65), remarking that, 'The design...was taken from one executed by Mr. M'Lean in Mary-le-bone street, near Tottenham court road, who finishes small articles in the neatest manner'.