BY GILLOWS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A REGENCY MAHOGANY CHAMBER WRITING-TABLE
BY GILLOWS, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The rounded rectangular reeded top with a mahogany-lined hinged compartment to the rear with pen tray and ink wells, above a mahogany-lined drawer with convex quarter-fillets and apparently original rosewood handles, on ring-turned reeded tapering legs, on brass caps and castors, the drawer stamped 'GILLOWS.LANCASTER' and the underside of the drawer inscribed in pencil 'C.J. CARD' and 'RED BED ROOM OVER DINING ROOM', and with a depository label printed 'COPPLESTONE, UNSWORTH & CO. LTD. REMOVAL AND WAREHOUSING DEPOSITORIES, LIVERPOOL', the castors stamped 'COPE'S PATENT'
29 in. (74 cm.) high; 28 in. (71 cm.) wide; 19 in. (48 cm.) deep

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The bedroom-apartment table, with its top bordered by reeds in the Grecian fashion promoted around 1800 by the architect Sir John Soane, relates to a sketch for this type which appears in Gillows' Estimate Sketch Book, dated 1810, and called by them a 'chamber writing-table' (No. 344/144, p. 11, Westminster City Archives). Gillows supplied four tables of this pattern in 1811 to T.W. Egerton for Tatton Park, Cheshire (N. Goodison and J. Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park, Cheshire', Furniture History, 1970, pp. 28, 30, 32 and 35, pl. 16B).
The inscription 'C.J. Card' may refer to a cabinet-maker working for Gillows, but it is not recorded with other craftsmen working for the firm in their Estimate Sketch Books.
A closely-related chamber writing-table, inscribed with the craftsman John Herbert's name (recorded working at Gillows around 1800), was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 14 September 2006, lot 374 (£8,500).

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