A Regency mahogany small writing table circa 1800

the rounded rectangular gilt-brass mounted top with a heart-motif pierced gallery surrounding a tooled inset leather writing surface, the frieze drawer retaining the original gilt-brass lion mask ring handles, the turned legs with ebonised ring mouldings and reeded `tassel' decoration above and below, on brass cap castors stamped `Cope and Collinson'

Ronald Philips, London.
Private collection, London.

This is in overall very good condition. Colour and patination are good. There are minor old marks, minor chips and scratches consistent with age and use. The leather appears to be original and is attractively worn. The handles and other metalwork are original.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This form of table is of a form commonly associated with Gillows of Lancaster, and appears in the Gillows Estimate Sketch Books dated 1810 described by that firm as a `Chamber writing-table', ( No.344/144, p.11 Westminster City Archives). However the rather unusual tassellated ring-turned legs can also be associated with the work of  the London cabinet-makers, John Mclean and Son ( 1770-1825). First recorded in Little Newport Street, Leicester Square, his trade card describing him as a `Cabinet, Chair Maker and UPHOLDER'    and illustrating a lady`s dressing table in the French taste. By 1790 the firm had moved to Upper Marylebone Street remaining at this address until its demise in 1825, although other addresses at Pancras Street and Upper Terrace in the vicinity of Tottenham Court Road are recorded. They were cabinet-makers of the highest calibre, patronised by such connoisseurs as the Earl of Jersey for whom they worked at Middleton Park, Oxfordshire and the Earl`s London mansion in Berkeley Square.

Much of Mclean`s work is conceived in a simlar manner to the present table with well figured veneers, gilt-metal mounts, ring turning and tassels on the legs. These last details appear on a Carlton House desk believed to have been commissioned from Mclean & Son in the Royal Collection, illustrated in H. Clifford Smith, Buckingham Palace, Its Furniture, Decoration & History, London, 1931, p.237, pl.292. and also to some extent on a similar desk commissioned by George, 5th Earl of Jersey, sold Sotheby`s, London, Important English Furniture, 5th June 2007, lot 200. For a further comparison see a writing table attributed to Mclean sold Sotheby`s Olympia, The Contents of Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire, 8th October 2002, lot 114 and another related example  sold Sotheby`s New York, 23rd October 2004, lot 125.