A George II walnut bureau cabinet, probably Cumbria, second quarter 18th century

Probably Eldred Curwen (1692-1745) or his son, Henry Curwen (1730-1778) for Workington Hall, Cumbria and probably removed to Belle Isle, Windermere, in the 1930s when Workington Hall was given up;
Thence by descent.

A Schedule & Appraisement of the Household Goods and Furniture in Workington Hall which the late Henry Curwen died Proffered of, 1778, possibly the 'desk & bookcase' listed in the Library, p. 3 (Cumbria Archives, DCU/7/1);
Inventory of the contents of Workington Hall, made by Messrs J R Mitchell and Sons, auctioneers & valuers of Cockermouth, 21 August 1931, the 'dome-toped Walnut Secretarie' listed in the Passage, p. 23 (Cumbria Archives, DCU/1/217);
E. W. Hodge, ‘Belle Isle – II, Westmorland’, Country Life, 10 August 1940, pp. 121 & 124, figs. 4 & 15.

This wonderful bureau-cabinet is a curious amalgam of various design influences. The form, with its double-dome, fall-front bureau and cariole leg, no doubt derives from the fashionable trends which eventually emerged in metropolitan centres of furniture manufacture in the North West of England in the early part of the 18^th century, such as Lancaster and Carlisle. The idiosyncratic carved apron is however a distinctly local attribute, drawing on vernacular furniture design and decorative motifs from Westmoreland and the Lake District (see Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture, The British Tradition, Antique Collector’s Club, 2016, pp. 443-448). A remote part of the country, much of the Cumbrian decorative arts evolved in isolation from external influences, instead looking to the region's Norse heritage of the middle-ages. The stylised snail-like scrolls issuing from the apron derives from this tradition and features on oak furniture from the 17^th and early 18^th centuries.