IN THE MANNER OF GILLOWS

Details

A GEORGE III ROSEWOOD, SATINWOOD AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED SECRETAIRE-BOOKCASE
In the manner of Gillows
Crossbanded on the front in tulipwood, the cavetto cornice with painted lappeted border, above a plain frieze and a pair of geometrically-glazed doors enclosing a watered silk-lined interior with three adjustable shelves, one later, the lower section with a secretaire flap with two pearled oval panels, enclosing a fitted interior with five satinwood-fronted cedar-lined small drawers, eight pigeon-holes and a green leather-lined writing-surface above a pair of pearled oval-panelled doors enclosing an adjustable shelf, on square tapering legs with spade feet, with paper label on the reverse inscribed in ink 'part of satinwood & inlaid cabinet 123' and with printed paper label '9', with paper label inscribed in ink 'g.p.' and with Pickfords label inscribed in pencil 'Gen. Pickford 347', the lock stamped 'I.BRAMAH PATENT' below a crown, one pane with small crack
77¼ in. (196.5 cm.) high; 33¾ in. (86 cm.) wide; 17¾ (45 cm.) deep

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's London, 22 May 1992, lot 272 (£35,200).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The secretaire-fall has golden handles of a sacred laurel-wreathed urn patera displayed within pearl-wreathed medallions of golden satinwood. Such tablet-framed medallions, which also feature on the commode doors, had appeared in Thomas Malton's, Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1778, and were further popularised a decade later by Messrs A. Hepplewhite and Co's, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, as well as by The Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices, 1788. They occur in the same year on a bureau-cabinet in Messrs. Gillows' sketch book (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs, Royston, 1995, fig. 132). The bookcase cornice is painted with a wreath of poetic palms, as appears in the pattern for a related urn-capped 'Secretary and Bookcase' issued in Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793 (pl. XXVIII).

More from IMPORTANT ENGLISH FURNITURE & TAPESTRIES

View All