ATTRIBUTED TO MAYHEW & INCE OR THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1760

The arched pediment enclosing an oval patera relates closely to that on another bookcase sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 19 April 2001, lot 179 ($110,500) as well as one sold by Jeremy Ltd., Dealing in Excellence: A Celebration of Hotspur & Jeremy, Christie's, London, 20 November 2008, lot 90 (£73,250). Like the present bookcase, the latter was also thought to have been made by the Golden Square partnership of Mayhew and Ince, that was in existence from the late 1750s until 1804. Each of the bookcases share the same shaped pediment and panels of richly figured mahogany in the base.
Whilst an attribution to Mayhew and Ince has been advanced for such bookcases, there is little beyond stylistic affinities to link the object to the maker. Other leading London cabinet-makers might also be considered, including Thomas Chippendale, who supplied similarly restrained neo-classical furniture to Sir Rowland Winn at Nostell Priory, including a set of eight Library armchairs and a set of six Library armchairs for Lord Melbourne, now at Brocket Hall, each set featuring the distinctive oval patera in the toprail (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 92-93, figs. 150-1). Furthermore, the pattern of glazing bars featured on a bookcase published by Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1st edition, 1754, pl. 67.