A George II Yew Wood Slant Front Desk, Circa 1730

Sotheby's London, Ashdown House: The Winter Queen And The Earl Of Craven, 27 October 2010, lot 326

This desk was formerly in a collection formed in the postwar years at Ashdown House in South Oxfordshire, England, built in the second half of the seventeenth century by William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608-1697), purportedly for the 'Winter Queen', Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662). Craven was in love with Elizabeth, elder sister of Charles I, who in 1613 had married Frederick V Elector of the Palatinate and had reigned as King of Bohemia in Prague during the winter of 1619-1620 before being driven out by Habsburg forces in November 1620. Later in life the widowed Elizabeth would return to live in England after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 166, but died shortly thereafter, before Craven's house was built. The property remained with his descendants until donated to the National Trust in 1956.