Mark Singleton (left) and Steve Greatrex (right) shown with a Chippendale-cased George Pyke Barrel organ (inset: a detail of the organ).
Singleton says: “In this tercentenary year of Thomas Chippendale’s birth, it’s fitting that this piece should be offered, not having been on the open market in living memory.”
Clockmaker and organ builder George Pyke commissioned the furniture maker to build cases for his pieces. This 1772 piece is believed to be the most complex that Pyke ever built and the case, Singleton adds, is almost certainly from the workshop of Chippendale.