A George II carved mahogany breakfront cabinet of architectural form

the upper section with a central mirrored door opening to adjustable shelves, flanked by mirrored cupboard doors opening to shelves above secret wells, the projecting lower section fitted with a reading/writing slide on a baize-lined ratchet support flanked by swiveling pen/pencil drawers, all over a central door opening to adjustable shelves above four small drawers, flanked by cupboard doors opening to adjustable shelves. Some carved elements later, additions to cornice.

The architectural form of this cabinet with its arched glazed central door in the manner of a ‘Venetian’ style window below a central arched pediment flanked by pilasters carved with ‘boys’ heads above pendent foliage and low cabinets supporting scrolled foliate ornamented brackets, is related to an etching of an organ case published by Vardy and designed by William Kent in his Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, plate 47. This is closely related to a large carved, painted and parcel gilt cabinet in the Victoria and Albert Museum (See: Desmond Fitz-Gerald, Georgian Furniture, 1969, pl. 32. Other recorded cabinets with the same proportions as the present cabinet include another in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (See: J. Hayward, English Cabinets, 1964, p. 17, no. 180), and one formerly in the Mulliner Collection, sold, Christie’s, London, May 18, 1939, lot 98.