AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF GEORGE II BRASS–INLAID MAHOGANY BACK-TO-BACK DESKS circa 1740

each top fitted with a book stand on ratchet support, one top additionally with a compartment for pen and ink, each frieze fitted with three mahogany fronted drawers above an arched kneehole flanked by a secret spring-released door opening to a short drawer.

Whitehall, Hertfordshire (?)

Wood and Hogan, Inc., New York City

Edward Wenham, Antique Furniture for Modern Rooms, New York, 1948, p. 81

Overall fair condition with areas of old restorations; very nice old patination to the veneered surfaces and to the leather-lined tops; later leather lined tops with areas of wear and scratches; all drawers with later runners; each with two plugs to the baseboard of each pedestal. The first with minor chips and patches to the cross-banded border of the top; the underside of the top with some later battens and blocks as well as minor glue repairs to age cracks of top; central frieze drawer lacking right handle; the hidden drawers behind the spring-released doors with a chamfered inside edge; the bottom right cupboard door locked, and lacking inlaid brass keyhole escutcheon; the minor losses and age cracks to cross-cut molded edge of arch and with lifting, losses and numerous age cracks with some fillets and chips, losses and old worm to veneers of underside of arch; age cracks to inside panels of pedestals; the left panel with fillet to one age crack and with patch to front edge at join with lock plate of left cupboard door; overall with minor age cracks, chips, losses and patches to veneers overall. The other desk with some later battens, blocks and glued repair age cracks to the underside; the top with small chips and patches to the cross-banded border; each spring released door with scratches and infilled age cracks to veneers and with small circular indentation for the circular ring handles for the drawers; the cross-cut molded edge of arch with age cracks and minor fillets; the underside of the arch with chips lifting, losses, and patches to the veneers especially around the spring-release button; the bottom of the arch at either side with one long veneer patch above cross-cut moldings; the inside panels of the pedestals with some age cracks and each with a patch to the front edge at juncture with the lock plate at cupboard door; right curved side panel with inpainted horizontal stress crack; overall with small chips, losses and age cracks to veneers and with some patches consistent with age and use.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

These unusual desks or commodes were originally designed either to be occasionally placed together in the center of a room, the unfinished backs being fitted with wooden 'tongues' to loosely join the two together, or to be placed in the piers between windows.

They belong to a small group of similarly conceived pairs of desk – commodes of which perhaps the most celebrated are those commissioned by Lady Burlington, wife of the third Earl of Burlington, from John Boson, for the Garden Room at Chiswick House in 1753. Of similar overall form to the present examples, their design, however, clearly illustrates the strong influence of William Kent, their architectural profiles being more angular, although richly ornamented with parcel-gilt carved ornament. The Chiswick 'tables', as they were described in Boson's account, are similar, both in profile and carved ornament and detail, to at least seven others, including four complete pairs and three single tables which presumably have lost their companion pieces (See: Sotheby's, New York, Auction Catalogue, 'A Celebration of the English Country House', April; 7, 2004, lot 208).

The present desks, however, although of comparable fine cabinet-making and internal construction to these examples, do differ in a number of aspects suggesting a different cabinet maker to John Boson (fl. 1720 d. 1743) or Benjamin Goodison (c. 1700-1767), who has also been suggested in connection with the group as a whole; certainly their 'softer' and curved profile is very different, and the subtle feather-banding found on the tops and ornamenting the front indicates a cabinet-maker less concerned with architectural detail.

A notable feature of the desks is the imaginative and free design of the otherwise plain inlaid-brass handle-plates and escutcheons. The use of brass inlay by cabinet-makers, both English and Continental, working in England in the mid eighteenth century, was studied by Christopher Gilbert and Tessa Murdoch in John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture 1730-1760, 1993, although no direct parallel appears to be shown in this publication.

Unfortunately, the provenance as noted by Wenham in Antique Furniture for Modern Rooms, cannot be verified at this time; the only recorded house of this name appears to be in Shropshire, and early images of the interiors do not show the present desks.