A GEORGE III PEDESTAL WRITING DESK

The desk retains the original ornate brass handles and an old faded brown leather insert. The feet are faithful restorations. The design of this writing desk is somewhat unusual. It has open bookshelves on three sides in place of the usual bank of drawers to either side of the kneehole. The frieze is fitted with one long drawer and two short drawers to the front and two short drawers and a dummy drawer to the reverse. A virtually identical writing desk was formerly in the collection of Gargrave House in Yorkshire.

Literature: Sotheby’s, ‘The Gargrave House Sale, Yorkshire’, sale catalogue, 26 October 1982, p. 75, lot 571.