Description
An English early George II period walnut tallboy, or chest-on-chest. Circa 1730.
The whole veneered in well figured rich honey coloured walnut and inlaid with herringbone lines.
The top section containing three short drawers over three long drawers beneath a cavetto cornice. The base with three long drawers and raised on bracket feet.
Note the features of bold fluted angles both top and bottom, together with a sunburst in the base. Both features are a sure sign of good quality which add considerable interest and value to this Georgian antique. Brass mounts correct for period but not original.
Ref: A very similar 18th century walnut tallboy or chest on chest, ca. 1730, lot 91, was sold by Bonhams, Knightsbridge, London, 26th Feb 2008 @ £12,000. This item was ”restored”, had a replaced slide and did not have the added feature of double canted angles.
Vis. The tallboy inlaid with a sunburst, c. 1710, ‘The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’, Ralph Edwards CBE FSA, Hamlyn, London, 4th impression 1972, p.205.
Also see the illustration in S. Whittington and C. Claxton Stevens, ’18th Century Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection’, London, 1989, p. 368 and R. Edwards CBE FSA, ‘The Dictionary of English Furniture’, London, 1954, vol. 2, pp. 42-43, and vol. 1, p.140.
A secretaire chest-on-chest with the trade label of Daniel Wild, at the Golden Ball, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, is illustrated in C. Gilbert (ed.), ‘Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840’, London, 1996, p. 469.
