Footnotes

• Provenance: Purchased from Mourne Park, seat of the the Earls of Kilmorey
  
  Aspects of the cabinet-work on the offered desk parallel those found on Chippendale's furniture at Dumfries House, Ayrshire, such as the red wash, which is visible to the top of the pedestals (see Christie's proposed contents sale of Dumfries House, 12-13 July 2007, p.10 figs 12 and 13 and lots 40 and 236). It is significant that the red wash appears on many of the pieces at Dumfries House supplied by Chippendale and not on those pieces known to have been sourced from other cabinet-makers.
  
  The overall form and detail of the present desk relates to patterns for 'Library Tables' published in both Thomas Chippendale's 1753 first edition of the Director as well as the more famous 1762 third edition of his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director: design LXXIX.
  
  The panelled doors with re-entrant corners and mounted flower heads or patera seen in this desk are very similar to a design feature which was published in the 1762 third edition of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director: design CVII.