This clothes press has two upper trays surviving, both lined with Chippendale’s signature marbled paper – the same as used on his invoices and on the endpapers of his design catalogue The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director.

In the lower section, three trays are lined with blue sugar paper. Sugar paper, traditionally dyed blue, was so-called as cones of sugar were wrapped it to keep them clean during the 18th and 19th centuries. The flame mahogany in the door panels provides most of the decoration. This very high-quality mahogany came from Jamaica where it had been cut down by enslaved people.

This press was conserved in 2022 with funding from Museums Galleries Scotland.