A Near Pair of George III Mahogany Bedside Cabinets

A near pair of Chippendale Period mahogany bedside cupboards, the tray tops pierced with carrying handles, moulded corners over doors with stirrup brass handles above a leather covered pot slide with swan neck brass handles and raised on square chamfered legs.

While very close in design, these bedside cupboards came from different houses but may have been made by the same workshop. Their form is sophisticated and the use of richly coloured, well figured timber suggests they emanated from a leading firm of cabinet makers.

While Thomas Chippendale does not include a drawing of these cabinets in any edition of The Director, he certainly supplied such as Sir Edward Knatchbull at Mersham le Hatch in 1767: ‘… a large mahogany night table and necessary stool £2. 15. 0’, illustrated in Christopher Gilbert, ‘The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, vol II, plate 455’ page 249. Gilbert further notes (ibid. vol. I. page 221) that the Mersham example ‘is again allied to documented examples at Paxton and betrays its pedigree by the eloquently matched veneers and refined details such as the hipped corner mouldings.’