LATE 18TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY GILLOWS OF LANCASTER

Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, featured a related patten for this useful piece of furniture, entitled a 'dumb waiter' as it served 'in some respects in place of a waiter'. Dumb waiters of this pattern were commissioned by George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll (d.1835), following his succession as Chief of the Clan Campbell in 1806 (see: John C. Rogers, English Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1959, p. 239, fig. 197). They were supplied for Inveraray Castle as part of a set of four designed for the banqueting room and executed en suite with two sideboard tables, four pier tables, a pier commode table and a banqueting table. The suite is attributed to Gillows of Lancaster and the pier tables relate to tables which the firm supplied to Tatton Park, Cheshire, and Shugborough, Staffordshire. Two of the set of four dumb-waiters remain at Inveraray Castle (see: J. Cornforth and G. Hughes-Hartman, Inveraray Castle, Derby, 1994, pp. 3-6, and A. Coleridge, 'English Furniture in the Duke of Argyll's Collection at Inveraray Castle', Connoisseur, May 1965, pp. 154-161, figs. 5 and 6)