SOLD - A Magnificent Georgian Satinwood Secretaire
Height: 7' 9" 296cm
Width: 43" 109cm
Depth: 22" 56cm
Of outstanding colour and quality, this George III secretaire represents the very best in Eighteenth century English cabinet making. The satinwood veneers selected are of particularly high quality and have developed an excellent patina.
English, Circa 1790
Exhibited: The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 1984
EXHIBITED : The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 1984
ATTRIBUTION & LITERATURE
This bookcase has a number of design features that bear a remarkable similarity or are identical to designs by Thomas Shearer.
In 1793, The London Society of Cabinet-Makers produced the second edition of The Cabinet-Makers' London Book of Prices. It included twenty design plates, of which seventeen were by Shearer.
In plate 7, he illustrates two bookcases, one with the same cornice to the upper cabinet and fluted edge to the lower cabinet. In the other we find a similar arrangement of drawers and the same feet and apron. In addition, the design of the glazing bars match example number 6 from plate 15.
The book ran to 1000 copies and if the promoter's claims are to be believed 'met with a rapid sale' and 'daily demands for more'. However, it was not for the designs that this book was in high demand but for the standard piecework rates that were set down in it. As Christopher Gilbert says "It served as a practical handbook for regulating and calculating the labour charges or piecework rates when making specific cabinet wares"
Thus we are left with the most compelling comparison between this bookcase and Shearer's designs. The fact that his designs were so readily available through the 'London Book of Prices' should not be ignored, but it is nevertheless interesting to note that an insurance policy taken out on 19th May 1790 by J.H. Sherwood of 75 Aldersgate St, London included cover on a dwelling house in 'Little Bartholomew Close' and £100 for stock in the house of Shearer, cabinet-maker 'in the said close'. If one bears in mind just how well designed and executed this secretaire is, it is natural to believe a Master Cabinet maker was responsible and that it might have been Shearer himself.
REFERENCES
London & Provincial Books of Prices: Comment and Bibliography By Christopher Gilbert. The Journal of the Furniture History Society, Volume XVIII.
The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660 1840
 "George III Satinwood Secretaire")
