A Regency Gilt-Brass Mounted Rosewood and Secretaire Cabinet attributed to John McLean, Circa 1810

With Devenish, New York;

Christie's New York, 7-8 October 2015, lot 158.

36th Winter Antiques Show, Park Avenue Armory, New York, illustrated in the fair catalogue p.49

This work is virtually identical to a cabinet in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (W.10:3-1944) bearing the label of the London cabinetmaking firm John McLean & Son (illustrated in Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Woodbridge 1954, Vol.I, p.159 fig. 82). First recorded in Little Newport Street off Leicester Square in 1770, in 1790 the firm moved into 55 Upper Marylebone Street, where it remained until its liquidation in 1825. The firm thrived at the beginning of the nineteenth century with premises at two additional locations off Tottenham Court Road, and specialised in French-inspired case pieces veneered in dark rosewood and embellished with gilt brass mounts, many of which appear to be unique to their workshop, suggesting they possessed an in-house stock of models. On 31 January 1806 an advertisement in The Times announced that the firm 'have re-opened their Warerooms with a new and elegant assemblage of Parisian furniture', and their clients included George Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey and his wife, Lady Sarah Fane, heiress of the owner of Osterley Park Robert Child, for the furnishing of their new house, Middleton Park, Oxfordshire and their London residence in Berkeley Square.

An identical cabinet with giltwood turned feet rather than paw feet was previously with Ronald Phillips, Ltd. London and sold Sotheby's New York, The Collection of Mr and Mrs Stephen C. Hilbert, 24 May 2007, lot 62. Two addition versions of this model, with oval rather than rectangular panels on the doors, were sold Sotheby's New York, Tom Devenish - the Collection, 24 April 2008, lots 173 and Christie's London, Dealing in Excellence. A Celebration of Hotspur and Jeremy, 20 November 2008, lot 119.