An Amboyna & Ebony Kidney Desk - Apter-Fredericks Antique Furniture, Writing Pieces Dealer

The desk fitted with three frieze drawers above a kneehole flanked by a pair of cupboard doors opening to four graduated drawers and opposed by three shelves, and standing on casters. The underside stamped C. S PREWITZ twice; the central frieze drawer with a paper label stamped 4962, each lock plate stamped IMPD / LEVER / LOCK. Together with one-hundred-eight leather-bound books.

The present desk exhibits a very high level of workmanship and is of outstanding quality with the use of mahogany as a secondary wood and beautiful amboyna, rosewood, and mahogany veneers. In spite of the unrecognized stamp for Prewitz, it is almost certainly the production of one of the leading London firms of the middle of the 19th century.

The stamp for Prewitz remains something of a mystery. A Victorian inlaid amboyna center table also stamped C S PREWITZ was sold Sotheby's, London, June 4, 2008, lot 195 (£21,250) and was attributed to the English 19th century firm of Jackson and Graham. Jackson and Graham employed upwards of 250 staff by the middle of the century and many of them were of foreign extraction. It is entirely possible that Prewitz was employed by a large firm such as Jackson and Graham and it is by no means unique for craftsmen to stamp their work. It seems improbable that the name refers to a hitherto unrecorded firm, as work of this quality could hardly go unnoticed.