George III Thuya Cylinder Front Desk, Ca. 1790

England Ca. 1790

A rare small inlaid cylinder front writing desk made of burled Thuya wood. The sliding cylinder section rises to reveal 7 cubby holes, 3 small drawers with bone pulls and a ratcheted supported gold tooled green leather writing/reading surface surrounded by satinwood. The writing surface also pulls out for easy seated use. Below the writing slide is a single long drawer that retains its original Sheffield silvered pulls. Though difficult to see, there is a narrow line of inlay on all four corners the length of each leg.

This very hard rarely used Thuya wood is indigenous to Malta and the Northern Africa Mediterranean coast. With the desk is a page from a store or auction catalog from the early 1950s showing this desk and identified as bought or sold by Needham’s Antiques,one of New York City’s top English dealers. Also written in faint pencil at the top of the page is “W. H. Living Room”

Price

$9400

Condition

Excellent antique condition. The casters are high quality reproductions as someone had cut the wheels off the old ones. The pulls to raise the lid are old high quality reproductions. Small stress and inlay repairs. The lid lock is an old replacement. The bands of inlay that are on the curved edges of the case flanking the cylinder were replaced the old replacements that were on it had been made from a noticeably poor quality non-conforming wood.

Measurements

40.5" H X 20.5" D X 30" W, Depth with writing slide fully extended is 28.5"