A Regency brass inlaid rosewood and calamander banded library table

almost certainly by either John McLean or George Oakley

Footnotes

Directly comparable 'lyre-end' library tables in rosewood and/or calamander, which have been attributed to John McLean, include the following examples sold at Christie's: New York, 17th October 2003, Important English Furniture, lot 176; New York, 8th April 2004, Impotant English Furniture, lot 49 and London, 23rd May 2013, The English Collector, lot 119.

The Gillows firm is likewise noted for producing similar models with essentially identical 'lyre-ends' at approximately the same date, although these tend to very often be games or sofa tables, and sometimes combinations of both these formats. Also significantly, the Regency cabinet maker George Oakley is nowadays almost equally celebrated for making closely related writing and library tables which often feature star-inlaid borders to their tops, just as on the present lot.

The firm of McLean and Son was established in London around 1770, trading from premises in Little Newport Street, Leicester Square, until 1783. By 1790 the firm had moved to 55 Upper Marylebone Street, later expanding to occupy premises in both Pancras Street and Upper Terrace, and continuing in business until 1825. John McLean and son were cabinet makers of the highest calibre, patronised by such leading connoisseurs as the 5th Earl of Jersey, for whom they worked extensively at Middleton Park, Oxfordshire, and the Earl's London mansion in Berkeley Square.

In Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet Dictionary of 1803, McLean and Sons are listed among the foremost English cabinet makers of the period, and it is some indication of the esteem in which they were held that Sheraton himself made use of one of their designs for a 'pouch table', which he illustrated in the Dictionary, (pl.65), remarking that, 'The design... was taken from one executed by Mr M'Lean in Mary-le-bone street, near Tottenham court road, who finishes small articles in the neatest manner'.