The maker of this piece remains unidentified, but the exacting construction, the choice of the timber (a carcass using only wainscot oak), and the bombé-shaped base suggest a connection to the enigmatic Peter Miller workshop.
Both the engraved brasswork (including the foliate mounts to the angles) and the carved gilt paw feet are original.
The George I burr walnut bureau bookcase that sold for £120,000 at Duke’s.
Miller’s work was unknown to English furniture historians until the publication in 1996 of Christopher Gilbert’s Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 and the illustration of a walnut bureau bookcase with the inscription ‘Peter Miller Cabenet Macker in the Savoy in London the 13 June A[nn]o 1724’.
The distinct character of the pieces since added to Miller's oeuvre raises the possibility that – based outside the jurisdictions of the City Livery Companies – he was a German emigre and his surname an anglicised version of the surname Muller.
Duke’s bureau bookcase – it measures 3ft 10in wide by 7ft 4in high (1.17 x 2.24m) – was the choice lot in the sale of the contents of Moigne Combe, a Dorset house built by Henry Pomeroy Bond in 1898.
The last member of the family to reside in Moigne Combe was the late Major-General Mark Bond (1922-2017), an aide de camp to Field Marshal Montgomery.
The bookcase (top right of photo) in situ at Moigne Combe in Dorset.
Auctioneer Guy Schwinge described the bookcase, estimated at £40,000-60,000, as “an absolute belter”. He fielded bids from the room and the phones before it was knocked down to a phone bidder.
A buyer’s premium of 25% was charged.
