Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art
Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art
Property from an English Private Collection
A Queen Anne walnut kneehole desk, early 18th century
Auction Closed
November 9, 01:23 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from an English Private Collection
A Queen Anne walnut kneehole desk
early 18th century
the burr walnut top with cross-and-chevron banding with moulded edge above two frieze drawers and six short drawers with double bead mouldings around a central kneehole cupboard, the sides with brass carrying handles, on later bun feet
79.5cm. high, 88.5cm. wide, 54cm. deep; 2ft. 7½in., 2ft. 10⅝in., 1ft. 9¼in.
Acquired from Alexander George Fine Antiques Ltd.
Kneehole desks, referred to in contemporary inventories as 'burroes' or 'burrows' after the French bureau, emerged as a new form in the first decades of the 18th century and from an early date. Initially they appear to have served as dressing tables rather than writing desks and placed primarily in bedchambers and dressing rooms, such as the 'Dressing Buroe with Drawers' and the 'walnut-tree dressing buroe table' recorded in the Duchess of Chandos's Dressing Room and Chintz Bed Chamber at Cannons in 1725 (see Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, From Charles II to Queen Anne, Antique Collectors Club, 2002, pp.120-23).