John Bradburn succeeded his master William Vile as cabinet-maker to the Great Wardrobe in 1764, going into partnership with another of Vile’s former employees William France (1734?-73) in the same year and with him undertaking the same range of duties formerly undertaken by Vile and his partner John Cobb (c.1715-78). In the 1760s and 1770s this consisted mainly of work at St James’s Palace, Buckingham House, Richmond Lodge and (particularly after 1772) Kew. While fine carving may have been his speciality, he also provided a constant stream of well-made mahogany pieces for the King and Queen and their growing family.

This piece is entirely characteristic of this type of functional and unshowy furniture and was one of a number of secretaire cabinets, all with slight variations, supplied around this date for the elder children as they were established in their own apartments. Charlotte, the Princess Royal, although only eight, would have been considered old enough to make occasional use of this ‘neat mahogany Secretary with drawers in front, and a writing drawer . . . a neat bookcase at top with looking glass doors . . . and a carved scrowl pediment top’ which Bradburn provided at a cost of £20 for her apartment on the second floor of Buckingham House. He included in the cost the provision of two keys (not surviving), one for the Princess herself marked PR, the other for Lady Charlotte Finch, governess to the royal children, marked LFC.

Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004