Lot Essay
This eliptic-ended tray inkstand with 'Grecian vase' palm-wrapped handles, is embellished in the French manner with buhle brass inlay banded by Etruscan ebony. With its arabesque scrolls and hop-wreathed Thyrsae, it relates directly to that supplied by George Bullock (d. 1818), cabinet-maker of 4 Tenterden Street, Hanover Square to Matthew Robinson Boulton (d. 1842) for the Library at Tew Park, Oxfordshire. Invoiced in 1817 at a cost of #12, it was subsequently sold by the Executors of the late Major Eustace Robb from Tew Park at Christie's house sale, 27-29 May 1987, lot 13). The album of Tracings by Thomas Wilkinson, from the Designs by the late Mr. George Bullock includes no less than three full-scale patterns for the arabesque inlay (City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham unbound nos. 241, 242b and 249 - the latter inscribed 'for Inkstand Mr Boulton'). Moreover, the design for two 'Ink stands' (no. 123), one circular and the other eliptic-ended, corresponds exactly with both this and the Tew inkstand.
Bullock experimented with numerous veneers and inlays on his inkstands, ranging from mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell to ebony and ivory inlay, as at Tew (C. Wainwright et al., George Bullock Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, no. 24, pp. 87-9). Two similar 'tray-shaped' oak inkstands featured in James Christie's sale of George Bullock's stock, held on the premises at 4, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square on 3-5 May 1819, of which one, lot 62, lacked 'glasses'.
The fashion for Bullock's inkstands is underlined by the presence of 'A very sumptuous circular ink-stand of the late George Bullock's Buhl manufacture, with richly cut glass' in the sale of Queen Charlotte's effects, sold anonymously as 'The Remaining part of a Valuable Collection of Curiosities' in these Rooms, 24-26 May 1819, lot 38 (3rd Day). A further related circular inkwell was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 13 April 1989, lot 6, while another, corresponding to Bullock's bill to William Nisbet of Biel circa 1816-18, 'A Handsome Buhl Inkstand of Pearl Tortoishell & Brass' at the cost of #28 (see that exhibited by H. Blairman & Sons, 1995).
An eliptic-ended tray-shaped inkstand is depicted upon a swan- supported and mirror-backed pier-set in Wilkinson's Tracings (City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, unbound)
Bullock experimented with numerous veneers and inlays on his inkstands, ranging from mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell to ebony and ivory inlay, as at Tew (C. Wainwright et al., George Bullock Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, no. 24, pp. 87-9). Two similar 'tray-shaped' oak inkstands featured in James Christie's sale of George Bullock's stock, held on the premises at 4, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square on 3-5 May 1819, of which one, lot 62, lacked 'glasses'.
The fashion for Bullock's inkstands is underlined by the presence of 'A very sumptuous circular ink-stand of the late George Bullock's Buhl manufacture, with richly cut glass' in the sale of Queen Charlotte's effects, sold anonymously as 'The Remaining part of a Valuable Collection of Curiosities' in these Rooms, 24-26 May 1819, lot 38 (3rd Day). A further related circular inkwell was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 13 April 1989, lot 6, while another, corresponding to Bullock's bill to William Nisbet of Biel circa 1816-18, 'A Handsome Buhl Inkstand of Pearl Tortoishell & Brass' at the cost of #28 (see that exhibited by H. Blairman & Sons, 1995).
An eliptic-ended tray-shaped inkstand is depicted upon a swan- supported and mirror-backed pier-set in Wilkinson's Tracings (City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, unbound)