A FINE GEORGE I BURR WALNUT BUREAU BOOKCASE IN THE MANNER OF PETER MILLER

A FINE GEORGE I BURR WALNUT BUREAU BOOKCASE IN THE MANNER OF PETER MILLER the upper section with shaped arched cornice and mirrored doors, within herringbone veneered borders, opening to a central cupboard, folio divisions and drawers, with twin candleslides to the lower section, the bombé-shaped base with a crossbanded fall front opening to a fitted concave interior with central cupboard, drawers and pigeonholes above an arrangement of two frieze drawers and three long graduated drawers below, with engraved brass key escutcheons and handles, the angles with pierced foliate gilt brass mounts, the sides with carrying handles, on carved gilt paw feet, 46˝" wide x 88˝" high x 25" deep The maker of this exemplary piece remains unidentified, but the exacting details of the construction, and the quality of the timber, is indicative of a maker such as Peter Miller. A signed cabinet by him bearing the date 1724 is of similarly refined form (see A. Bowett, "English Furniture 1715-1740", published Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2002, page 67, plate 2:31). In Christopher Gilbert's "Marked London Furniture 1700-1840," published by the Furniture History Society in 1996, it is suggested that the rather Germanic character of Miller's oeuvre raises the possibility that Miller was a German emigré and his surname an anglicised version of the surname Muller.