Lot Essay
The design illustrated is from the 'Wilkinson Tracings', an album now in the City Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham (M.3.74), inscribed 'Tracings by Thomas Wilkinson, from the Designs of the late Mr. George Bullock 1820', p. 123, Designs for the two inkstands. The upper design is for an inkstand supplied by Bullock in 1817 to Matthew Robinson Boulton for the library at Tew Park at a cost of #12 and which was subsequently sold by the Executors of the late Major Eustace Robb, Tew Park, Christie's house sale, 27-29 May 1987, lot 13. It was also exhibited in George Bullock Cabinet-Maker, Sudley Art Gallery, Liverpool, 21 February - 26 March 1988, exh. cat., no. 24. This lot follows the lower design.
Three similar circular inkstands of oak were sold in the sale of 'The Whole of the Finished stock of that highly ingenious Artist, Mr. George Bullock, Dec.' sold by Christie's at no. 4, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, 3-5 May 1819, lots 28 and 45 (1st day), and 55 (2nd day).
Bullock's use of tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl is surprisingly rare for an exponent of the 'buhl'. Only two items in the aforementioned sale had any reference to tortoiseshell and none to mother-of-pearl. They were: Lot 63 (2nd day): 'An Oblong Table of sumptious Buhl manufacture, the top composed of an oval slab of very rare and precious malachite, 4ft. 2½in. by 1ft. 5½in. in a border of ebony and tortoiseshell, inlaid with brass supported on rosewood standards, also splendidly inlaid with brass in rich arabesque and mounted with massive ormolu on castors'. This table was again sold in these Rooms, 24 April 1980, lot 103, and exhibited in George Bullock, Cabinet-Maker, H. Blairman & Sons, London, 24 February - 19 March 1988, exh. cat. no. 36 and lot 59 (3rd day): 'A Very Handsome Buhl Ink-Stand, inlaid with tortoiseshell and brass supported on sphinxes of or-moulu, with a drawer lined with crimson velvet and two cut-glasses and covers'.
The sale of 'All the Valuable Manufactured Stock in Trade of Mr. George Bullock, Dec...' by Christie's at 4 Tenterden Street on 13-15 May 1819 provides little evidence either of any great use of tortoiseshell; only lot 84 (1st day): 'Eight pannels, two box tops, and ten tortoiseshell corners in brass, rosewood, etc.' There was also 'A very sumptious 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) (see: C. Wainwright, George Bullock and his Circle', exh. cat., loc. cit.)
Three similar circular inkstands of oak were sold in the sale of 'The Whole of the Finished stock of that highly ingenious Artist, Mr. George Bullock, Dec.' sold by Christie's at no. 4, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, 3-5 May 1819, lots 28 and 45 (1st day), and 55 (2nd day).
Bullock's use of tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl is surprisingly rare for an exponent of the 'buhl'. Only two items in the aforementioned sale had any reference to tortoiseshell and none to mother-of-pearl. They were: Lot 63 (2nd day): 'An Oblong Table of sumptious Buhl manufacture, the top composed of an oval slab of very rare and precious malachite, 4ft. 2½in. by 1ft. 5½in. in a border of ebony and tortoiseshell, inlaid with brass supported on rosewood standards, also splendidly inlaid with brass in rich arabesque and mounted with massive ormolu on castors'. This table was again sold in these Rooms, 24 April 1980, lot 103, and exhibited in George Bullock, Cabinet-Maker, H. Blairman & Sons, London, 24 February - 19 March 1988, exh. cat. no. 36 and lot 59 (3rd day): 'A Very Handsome Buhl Ink-Stand, inlaid with tortoiseshell and brass supported on sphinxes of or-moulu, with a drawer lined with crimson velvet and two cut-glasses and covers'.
The sale of 'All the Valuable Manufactured Stock in Trade of Mr. George Bullock, Dec...' by Christie's at 4 Tenterden Street on 13-15 May 1819 provides little evidence either of any great use of tortoiseshell; only lot 84 (1st day): 'Eight pannels, two box tops, and ten tortoiseshell corners in brass, rosewood, etc.' There was also 'A very sumptious 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) (see: C. Wainwright, George Bullock and his Circle', exh. cat., loc. cit.)