ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, CIRCA 1805

This oval wine-cistern, with reeded baluster legs and fluted lid relates to a number of well known examples that are attributable to Gillows. These examples include: one from the collection of Mr. W. Meyer illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. I, p. 223, that subsequently sold from the Montague Meyer Family Collection, Christie's London, 24 April 1980, lot 57; a second from the collection of R. Eden Dickson, Esq., in P. Macquoid, The Age of Satinwood, London, 1908, fig. 66; a third formerly in the collection of the Earls of Stradbroke, Henham Hall, Suffolk; another that sold, the Property of a Descendant of John Lloyd Wynne of Coed Coch, Christie's London, 18 April 1996, lot 231. Two further examples are illustrated in F.L. Hinckley, The More Significant Regency Furniture: 1800-1830, New York, 1991, pl. 24, figs. 52 & 53. Another example sold most recently in these Rooms, The Property of a New York Collector, 9 April 2003, lot 94 ($20,315).

Gillows' earliest sketch for an oval lead-lined cistern features in their 1787 Estimate Sketch Book (see L. Boynton, Gillows Furniture Designs: 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 178). It is interesting to note the cut-cornered ebony stringing to the sides of the present wine-cistern which features on furniture supplied by Gillows for Wilbraham Egerton (d.1856) at Tatton Park, Cheshire in 1811 (see for example N. Goodison and J. Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park', Furniture History, pl. 18A, 19A & 19B).