Lot Essay
The lady's writing-table has hermed feet and wreathed-pattera handles such as featured on a pattern in the 1788 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of London and Lancaster, while its turn-over, leather-lined and loper-supported top features on a writing-table in their 1796 Estimate Sketch Book (illustrated in L. Boynton (ed.) , Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, figs. 149 and 151). The handle pattern also appears on a pair of the firm's satinwood and Etruscan-black 'sheverets' supplied in 1790 to William Tatton Egerton for Tatton Park, Cheshire (N. Goodison and J. Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park', Furniture History, Leeds, 1970, pl. 1A). Thomas Sheraton in his The Cabinet-Maker and Upholster's Drawing-Book, 3rd ed., 1802, illustrated a related 'Lady's Cabinet and Writing Table' pattern of 1792 with a drawer-supported top (pl. 50).