A George III style mahogany pedestal desk, after a design by Thomas Chippendale

the moulded hour-glass-shaped top with inset tooled leather, the front with nine drawers flanked by lion herms, the rear with three drawers and two cupboards also flanked with herms and decorated with floral swags, cupboards divided into three vertical compartments, locks stamped, 'Hobbs & Co. Lever London'

Thomas Chippendale; The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker`s Director, 1762 ed., No LXXX includes the design for a Library Table from which the offered lot is copied ( see illustration). Examples of furniture in Chippendale`s style are numerous but it is most unusual to find such a precise replication of the scale and design of a printed pattern. The Director was first re-issued by the publisher John Weale in the early 1830s and proved extremely popular and had run through several different editions by the end of the 19th century.

A similar example was sold in these rooms 9 July 1993, lot 129.