Webberley Antiques

Description

An extremely rare and beautifully proportioned Queen Anne bureau dressed in 'mulberry-wood' veneers of particularly good colour and with original fitted interior, again in mulberry wood. Flanking the central door are two wide and two narrow drawers with original fine oak linings and small dovetailed joints and featherbanded borders. Shaped dividers to the pigeon holes above and two secret drawers which have been beautifully made and extremely difficult to detect - on a spring release inside the outer drawer lining. The lock to the fall is original. Other hardware is later although it has been on the bureau for a very long time. Originally with bun feet, the bracket feet old replacements.

Hinges appear original and are in original position. The well has a lovely cover and is oak lined. The fall lowers smoothly and rests on original oak lopers, with an olive green thick leather with gold tooled border. The large graduated drawers retain their original full oak linings and are in good strong and robust condition. These open and close smoothly. Original carcase and original backboards with two vertical braces added.

Mulberry wood is not taken from a Mulberry bush or tree, it is a veneer (usually field maple) stained and then washed in acid with copper and other metals dissolved in it, to create beautiful highlights and contrasts in the wood resembling tortoiseshell.
It was the British cabinet makers' answer to French Boulework - natural tortoiseshell inlaid with brass stringing which became so fashionable in the late 17th and early 18th century. It is believed that very few British cabinet makers used mulberry wood and that the staining process was hotly guarded. Prominent exponents were Coxead and Woster - their mulberry-wood work usually seen with pewter stringing and mounts.

Very few mulberry pieces come to the market. This is a lovely quality small bureau with minor replacements and considerable charm.


Dimensions are:

37 inches wide, 22 inches deep and 38 inches high.

With the fall down depth is 35 inches and from the floor to the underside of the fall is 29 inches.

For metric please multiply by 2.5

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