Bureau cabinet of solid mahogany and veneers of mahogany, padouk and turtle-shell, on a carcase of mahogany, oak and pine, with inlay of engraved brass and brass handles, the doors of the upper tiers set with mirror glass

Desk and bookcase in solid and veneered mahogany, with additional veneers in turtle-shell, and rosewood, with inlay of engraved brass, brass stringing and brass handles. The lower tier is set with drawers, below a sloping writing flap, enclosing smaller drawers and pigeonholes. The upper tier is set with mirror-panelled doors enclosing pigeon-holes and adjustable bookshelves.

Design
Lower tier
The lower section is in the form of a desk with a sloped, fall-front, raised on four square feet set with shaped spandrel brackets, the edge of the plinth moulded and set with brass mouldings. The desk is fitted with two full-width drawers below two half-width drawers, above which is an apparent (actually blind) drawer between the two lopers on which the slope rests when open. All the drawers and the lopers are set with brass cock-beading attached with small pins. The drawer fronts are outlined with a framing stringing in brass, engraved with double lines, and with curving, inset corners, which, on the drawers of the lower three tiers, are formed of interlinked C-scrolls, from which issue a formalized bell-flower motif. On the middle drawer front between the lopers (supports for the writing slope) this motif is also set in the centre of the stringing at top and bottom. The same C-scrolls, in double pairs, appear above the locks on all but the smallest drawers, the stringing forming a framing at some distance around the brass keyhole escutcheons. The brass bail handles on the drawers are set against inlaid back-panels of brass, shaped and cut with opposing birds' head, with engraved detail, centering on a shell, with scrolls and gadrooning below. On the smallest drawers the keyhole is cut through these back-plates. The drop-front is similarly outlined with brass stringing, the area outside this veneered with cross-banding in mahogany. The veneer inside the stringing is book-matched. Below the keyhole, the centre is inlaid with an engraved brass cartouche centering on a blank shield flanked by cornucopiae and with a bird to each side perching on scrolls. Details of this design are engraved and filled with black mastic. The top edge of the desk is outlined with mahogany moulding, outset to accommodate the base of the pilasters on the upper case. The sides of the desk section are plainly veneered in mahogany with the grain running vertically. They are set centrally with a large, brass bail handle, bolted through the case, the shaped back panel engraved with a frame of paterae and gadrooning, the engraving filled with black mastic.

The writing flap is chamfered on the top edge. The inner surface shows a deep cross-banding in mahogany, mitred at the corners, the centre inlaid with a leather writing panel, with in-curved corners. The leather is brown, thick, and outlined with two rows of stamping: an outer border of blind-stamped circles, the inner band (stamped over gold) of continuous foliage. The writing surface runs onto the ground of the main carcase. A section of the main carcase forms a sliding panel which can be pushed back to reveal a well.

The prospect or fittings of the desk centre on an open section flanked by fluted Corinthian pilasters carved in mahogany with brass mouldings and brass enrichments to the lower part of the fluting. The pilasters form the fronts of two tall, narrow, hidden drawers. When these are fully removed, the back surfaces show, at the bottom edge, a small panel, cut with sloping sides that run in the sides from the base. These panels disguise further shallow hidden drawers which run under the false bases of the pilaster drawers.

The central open recess is raised on a plinth with semi-circular steps in front, these forming the front of two hidden drawers, the fronts of the steps inlaid with brass stringing. The shaped plinths on either side each contain two tiers of three drawers, the front shaped to follow the curving plan of the plinth. The outer drawers are set between narrow carved Ionic pilasters, mounted in the manner of the Corinthian pilasters and also disguising narrow, hidden drawers. All the visible drawers are outlined with brass stringing inlaid in mahogany. The two outer pairsof drawers to either side shows small, turned brass handles but the inner drawers on each side have no handles, which would interrupt the exaggerated curved of their fronts, which follow the shaping of the plinth. Above the drawers, the nest is fitted on each side with three pigeonholes separated by thin partitions, shaped at the front edges and each pierced with a double-scrolling design. A third partition on each side is set close against the side of the desk, but these are also pierced.

Upper tier
The upper tier is a double-doored cupboard, the doors set with shaped mirror panels, above a shallow base into which are set two candle slides, each with a simple, brass button handle. The doors rise to form a round-arched top. The outer edges of the doors are set with Corinthian pilasters, opening with the doors, and a taller, central pilaster is set on the leading edge of the right-hand door. These pilasters support the round-arched entablature, the concave frieze element of which is veneered with turtle-shell on a red ground. The front of the cabinet is veneered in mahogany, cross-banded, with mouldings of brass between elements and framing the mirror-glass panels. The pilasters are made of sections of cross-grained mahogany, with brass mouldings, and enrichments to the fluting in the lower third. On the central pilaster, a narrow section at mid-height can be slide to one side to reveal the keyhole. The capitals are carved in mahogany. A superstructure of mouldings in mahogany, brass and turtle-shell on a red ground, forms a minor entablature above each pilaster, occupying the height of the upper frame of the mirro panels. The main entablature shows two cross-bandings of rosewood flanking the turtle-shell frieze. In the centre, the main entablature breaks forward in a semi-circular section, which supports a tall, drum-shaped socle, veneered in turtle-shell on a red ground, on which is set a figure of Venus in carved and gilded wood.

At each side of the cabinet, the entablature rises in an arc from the front corner to a high point at the back edge, mirroring the form of the entablature on the front of the cabinet. The top surfaces of the entablatures are covered with thin boards of mahogany, additionally veneered in mahogany, set laterally. Where the curves meet in a valley on each side, the front corners are set with rectangular plinths of mahogany, supporting flaming urns in carved, gilded wood.

The inside of the doors show frames cross-veneered in mahogany, surrounding panels of mahogany set with the grain vertical and fixed with quarter-round mouldings to the edge of the frames. The lock on the right-hand door is now missing. Brass bolts are set into the leading edge of the left-hand door at top and bottom.

The cupboard of the upper tier is fitted with a lower nest of drawers and pigeonholes, below three adjustable shelves, all in mahogany. The shelves are each moulded on the front edge, the centre of each shelf shaped to follow the plan of the central recess of the nest. The nest is composed of two tiers of drawers. On the lower tier, two wide drawers (each with two handles), flank a narrower, central drawer, which is slightly recessed. On the upper tier there are two drawers on each side of the central, recessed, open compartment, which is flanked, above the drawers on each side, with three open compartments, edges at the top with shaped apron panels. The top panel of the nest is recessed in the centre, following the line of the central compartments and the shelves above.

Construction
Lower tier
The carcase of the lower tier is of pine, the front boards of each side in oak, the top and backboard in dark-stained oak. The carcase is of dovetailed construction. The dust-boards, which run the full depth of the carcase, are in pine, the front boards in oak. They are fitted in rebates in the sides of the carcase. The drawer dividers of the top two tiers are in oak, tenoned between the dust-boards. Thicker versions of these provide a housing for the lopers. A thick pine fillet is glued to the lower dust-board behind these to provide guide runners for these. The top dust-board, which forms the base of the upper tier of the desk and bookcase, is of cleated construction, with two broad, pine boards running front to back at the sides and a panel of mahogany running laterally between them. A cross-rail in pine, approximately two inches deep, runs across the back just below the level of the sloping section. This is dovetailed into the sides. The backboard is composed of several thin oak boards, set within a rebate in the sides and pinned into place, running over the cross-rail.

The large drawers are fitted with small oak slips at the front, as drawer stops. The lopers, of solid mahogany, are fitted with peg stops at the back, which run just above the guide rail and stop against the front of the blocks. The large drawers are of oak, dovetailed, with mitred dovetails at the back. There is a pronounced bevel on the top edges of the sides and backs of the drawers. The bases, with boards running back to front, are set into rebates, with additional shallow drawer runners are the sides nad a cross fillet under the front, pinned up. The large drawers are lined with coarse blue paper (added in the nineteenth century). The drawers show a pronounced taper in width from the front backwards, which ensures a tight fit in the carcase. Most of the taper is found in the thickness of the front rail. The central drawer between the lopers appears to be constructed fully as a drawer but is fixed in place, the drawer box forming the well under the writing surface and the front of the drawer glued in place on the front carcase.

The small drawers of the nest are in solid mahogany, dovetailed, with mitred dovetails at the back corners, the bases set within rebates and glued up. On the strongly shaped front corners of the inner drawers, highly elongated dovetails are visible on the inner sides. Both large and small hidden drawers, behind the pilasters, are constructed as four-sided dovetailed boxes, with a thick fillet of mahogany glued to the front, against which the pilasters are glued. The smaller hidden drawers have a narrow fillet glued into a groove in the sides, mid-way between the back and the front, to prevent the sides bowing and creating two compartments. The central drawers have their shaped, stepped, semi-circular fronts cut in solid mahogany, with addition sections glued on to create the outline of the lower step in each case, and a top section forming the plinth at the front of the top drawer.

The carcase of the nest is in oak (to the height of the drawers), with front boards in mahogany. It is of dovetailed construction and is inserted from the back of the main carcase. The drawer dividers are thin boards of mahogany, slid into grooves from the back. The top of the drawer section is also of thin boards of mahogany, set into grooves in the drawer dividers flanking the larger pilasters and chamfered to create a mitre with the lower edge of the pigeonhole dividers that are glued to each side. The intermediate dividers to the pigeonholes are held in grooves on the top of the drawer section and the top of the main carcase, and these have also been inserted from the back. Shaped apron panels are glued between the dividers in the open sections and above the large pilaster drawers, these acting as large glue blocks to hold the structure together.

Upper tier
The cupboard is constructed in solid mahogany, the sides and base dovetailed, with a frame of mahogany glued and pinned beneath this on the front and sides, to provide a housing for the two slides for candles. The top (which sits approximately level with the top of the plinths at either front corner) is jointed with a running dovetail to the sides of the carcase, its front edges additionally supported with large glue-blocks in the form of corbels, in the front corners, where the sides are cut away to follow the line of the side entablatures. The plinths for the flaming urns appear to be continuous with these but they are not and the plinths are attached with large screws, from the inside, through the corbels.

The side entablatures are built in solid oak, glued and pinned to the sides. The front entablature is built up as tow single planks of mahogany, glued to the front of the corbel-shaped glue blocks and to the front of a large, central block of oak, which sits just behind the central, semi-circular element of the entablature and provides a core for it. The lower, inside edge of the entablature on each side is set with additional fillets of mahogany, which overlap the edges and provide a stop for the doors.

To either side of the central oak block, vertical mahogany boards are glued (and probably pinned) between the front entablature and a shallow extension board in oak, arched in the centre, which is pinned into the recess of the upper sides, above the top board. It is likely that a wooden strut, curved in elevation, is set at 45 degrees (in plan) across each side compartment, from the back edge of each of these boards. The top surfaces over the intersecting entablatures are covered with thin, narrow (5 cm) boards of mahogany, set in the manner of coopering (barrel-making), the top edges additionally veneered in mahogany.

The candle-slides are made of solid mahogany, recessed into the underside of the framing mouldings, which are also in mahogany, forming a square approximately 10.5 cm across.

The sides are cut with grooves on the inside to accommodate the shelves. The grooves are chamfered at top and bottom and the front edges of the intermediate sections are moulded to reduce the apparent bulk. The shelves of the upper tier are faced at either end with mahogany running front to back, shaped to fit in the moulded grooves cut on the inner faces of the sides.

The nest is not a separate construction inserted from the back, as would be common practice. The horizontal boards are lodged in grooves cut in the sides of the carcase and the verticals housed in grooves on the base and glued to the underside of the upper board with glue blocks. The shaped apron panels at the head of each open compartments also serve as glue blocks. The small drawers are of solid mahogany, dovetailed, with blind dovetails on the fronts, which are additionally veneered in mahogany with the grain running top to bottom. The bases, with grain running front to back on the smaller drawers and laterally on the larger, central drawer, are inset into rebates. On the central drawer, the shaped front corners are built up in blocks of mahogany. The outer curve is then veneered and the veneer carried round and inserted into a deep slit cut in the inner corner of the curve. The main cross-banding is then applied to the rest of the drawer front and wrapped round the curved of the inner corners.

The doors are framed in oak, the sides through-tenoned to the lower rail and to the shaped upper rail which is cut in a single piece. The upper, outer corners show double tenons. |Each door is held on three brass butt hinges, with six screws to each hinge. The mirror panels on each door are beveled.

Possibly the bureau sold by John Noble Taylor in 1772 to Jacob Carrington (see letter given with the bureau).

Offered for sale by Sotheby's, 3 July 1953, lot 281, from the collection of Alan P. Good, Glympton Park, Woodstock, Oxford. In the sale catalogue entry a connection was made with the work of Abraham Roentgen.

Vyse Millard, dealers, Amersham.

Purchased from Frank Partridge & Sons Ltd., New Bond Street, 21 July 1953, for £800. RP 53/1953.

Object sampling carried out by Jo Darrah, V&A Science; drawer/slide reference 4/51.

Historical significance: This piece is unique within the group in using turtle-shell, set against a red ground, as well as brass inlay. The use of such material was rare in Britain at the time and was associated with the French technique of boulle marquetry, in which layers of turtle-shell and brass were cut in a single 'packet' and then two designs created by setting motifs in brass into the turtle-shell ground, and vice versa. The cabinet is attributed to a London cabinet-maker, John Renshaw, on the basis of an advertisement placed in the London Evening Post by Renshaw in February 1737, which announced the proposed raffle of a 'very curious Desk and Book-Case, which is allow'd by the Best and most impartial Judges, to far excel any Thing of the Kind that has ever been made, for its Beauty, Figure and Structure, which are very extraordinary. It chiefly consists of fine mahogany, embellished with Tortoiseshell, fine Brass Mouldings and Ornaments, with Palasters curiously wrought after the Corinthian Order'.

Whether this piece is the actual bureau cabinet raffled by John Renshaw is impossible to prove, but it is certainly close to the description of the piece. This piece is very well made, but the quality of the cabinet-making of the small drawers and pigeonholes fitted inside ('the prospect') is exceptionally fine. The sweeping, curved plan of the drawers demanded great skill in the cutting of dovetail joints and the veneering of curved surfaces. As such 'prospects' were independently made and fitted into such cabinets, it is always possible that they might be the work of a specialist craftsmen, who supplied them to a number of cabinet-makers.

This bureau cabinet is related to a group of brass-inlaid pieces which formed the subject of an exhibition shown in 1993 at Temple Newsam House, Leeds and the Victoria and Albert Museum (see refs.). Although a number of pieces with brass inlay are known, it was never a widespread form of decoration and must always have been expensive. Most of the surviving brass-inlaid pieces are anonymous, although the names of T.Landall (possibly for one member of the firm of Landall & Gordon) is stamped on one tea chest with this decoration and the name J. Graveley was branded on the underside of another bureau cabinet, sold in 1963. Two of the largest pieces of brass-inlaid furniture are the two bookcases made for Powderham Castle, Devon, each with an engraved plaque with the inscription 'J. Channon' and the date '1740' and for this reason John Channon's name is most closely associated with the technique.

Inlaying with brass is not unique to London-made furniture. Very similar decoration is seen in the work of the German cabinet-maker Abraham Roentgen (1711-1793), who spent some years working in London from 1733-1738 and may have been part of a group of cabinet-makers developing the technique. Certainly, a fellow German, Frederick Hintz (who shared with Roentgen membership of the Moravian church), was known as a maker of brass-inlaid furniture. In 1738, when Hintz returned to Germany, he advertised the sale of a variety of furniture 'all curiously made and inlaid with fine Figures of Brass and Mother of Pearl'.

The attribution was made as the result of work for the exhibition John Channon and brass-inlaid furniture 1730-1760, 1993-4, although the attribution is not specifically recorded in the book published at the time of the exhibition (see refs.). It is based on the advertisement published in the London Evening Post of 3-5 February 1737 (British Library, Burney 372b) of a lottery by John Renshaw of a 'desk and bookcase' (as such pieces were known at the time) of very similar form and decoration to this one. See Christopher Gilbert and Tessa Murdoch, eds., John Channon and Brass-inlaid Furniture 1730-1760. New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Leeds City Art Galleries and The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993, pp. 19-20.

This form of furniture, which we would now call a bureau bookcase, was generally called a desk and bookcase in the early eighteenth century. It was developed in Britain and copied in many of the German speaking states, although not in France. This example is particularly well made, with its interior drawers showing exaggerated curves in their plan - shapes which could only be successfully made by the finest craftsmen. The maker combined the wild, looping figure of mahogany which was cut from a section of the tree where a branch broke out from the main trunk, with veneers in padouk, another tropical wood, imported from the East Indies, and with veneers of turtle-shell, set against a red ground to give it added colour. The use of brass as an inlay in mahogany, was a particular fashion of the period 1730-60 but was only ever found in furniture of very high quality.

W.37:1 to 37-1953