A GEORGE II MAHOGANY PEDESTAL WRITING DESK ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HALLETT

A virtually identical pedestal desk also attributable to the Hallett workshop was formerly in the collection of S. B. Joel, formed under the guidance of R. W. Symonds. The Joel desk is illustrated in the Dictionary of English Furniture. Further smaller examples with arched kneeholes are known including one formerly with Partridge Fine Arts, now in a private collection in New York.
Note: One front of a pedestal has at one stage been converted to a filing drawer and has now been re-instated to drawers retaining the original drawer fronts. The desk retains all the original brass locks, ornate brass handles and concealed castors. The gold tooled leather insert is of later date.

Literature: Literature:
Christie, Manson & Woods, ‘The Important Collection of French and English Furniture and Meissen Porcelain, formed by the late S. B. Joel’, 29 May 1935, pp. 34–5, lot 133.
Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised edition, vol. III, 1954, p. 246, fig. 15.
Illustrated:
‘Dingley Hall II, Northamptonshire, The Seat of Viscount Downe’, Country Life, 23 April 1921, p. 497; in situ in the Tapestry Room.