Webberley Antiques

Description

A very small and finely made Queen Anne English Escritoire (an English Scriptor) 1690-1710

Petite, demonstrating masterful skill and attention to detail, each element made with extraordinary craftsmanship.

The outer fall with a central mulberry panel bordered by three wide bands, two of burr walnut and one of mulberry outlined with walnut crossbanding. The flanks to the fall also crossbanded in walnut.
The two short over two long principal drawers with figured mulberry fronts and walnut crossbanded borders. The concealed cushion drawer beneath the cornice is dressed with mulberry veneers. Full wainscot oak linings, original and beautifully made. Original top, bottom and back boards and beautiful double ogee mouldings to the flared cornice, waist and base.

The spectaulor and well fitted interior is fresh and vibrant– all ten of the small drawers with fine wainscot oak linings, tiny dovetails and each drawer front dressed with beautifully figured mulberry veneers, crossbanded in walnut, and all with original flower head backplates with brass drop handles.

Mulberry is a rarely seen veneer. It is not taken from a Mulberry bush or tree, it is a thickly cut veneer (usually field maple or sycamore) stained and then washed in an acid which has had copper or other metals and lampblack dissolved in it. This creates beautiful highlights and contrasts in the wood to make it resemble tortoiseshell. The necessity within the British Isles in the late 1600s and early 1700s to create a tortoiseshell appearance was driven by work of the French cabinet maker Andre-Charles Boulle who used polished tortoiseshell inlaid with brass scroll work to create ‘boulle work’. Such pieces selling for huge sums and being highly favoured and collected by the British Royalty and aristocracy.
It is believed that very few British cabinet makers knew how to create this mulberry wood and that the staining process was hotly guarded. Prominent exponents were Coxed and Woster - their mulberry-wood work usually inlaid with pewter stringing and mounts. Few mulberry wood pieces come to the market and it is wonderful to see this beautiful wood on such an early English Scriptor.

The fall lowers flat, firm and level on original brass stays and is inset with an olive green thick leather skiver with gold tooled border.

The inner door with original pierced brass hinges and original steel lock conceals three further small drawers within, each with original handles, walnut veneered over deal and with fine oak linings.

The large lined pigeon hole below the door is ample large enough for a laptop. With wireless technology, pieces like this are regaining their popularity and place in the home as a beautiful and practical working piece of antique furniture.
In very good original condition throughout. Minor dings and marks and small restorations but overall the scriptor is in showroom condition and all of the drawers are fully oak lined and open and close smoothly. This has clearly always been much loved and cared for over its 325 years of life.

A really rare and beautiful example which will look stunning in a modern or traditional interior.
(One of the factors of quality which specialists look for in early furniture of this great age is the balance of proportion/dimension. Measurements should ‘rhyme’ and if they do then they tell a story in themselves. Here I have given more detail than usual to show the perfect dimensions of this piece were so well thought out and executed that the scriptor is even more pleasing and ‘right’ to the eye)


Dimensions are:

60 inches high
36 inches wide (34 at cornice, 35 at waist, 36 at feet)
18 inches deep (17 at cornice, 17.5 at waist, 18 at feet)
With fall extended 37 inches deep max
Height below fall when extended 31 inches.

Drawer heights are:
Secret at top – 2 inches
Two frieze drawers 5 inches
Central drawer 7 inches
Lowest drawer 9 inches

For metric please multiply by 2.5
I describe and photograph my pieces accurately and with the aim that on arrival each will exceed expectations.

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