ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, CIRCA 1825

This glazed 'vitrine' table (now lacking legs) is conceived in the early 19th century French Grecian fashion with reed-gadroons enriching its hinged top and sunk tablets of black-figured rosewood. It bears the National Trust painted inventory mark adopted for furnishings at Belton House, Lincolnshire. It is likely to have been commissioned by John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow, Viscount Alford of Alford and 2nd Baron Brownlow of Belton (d. 1853), Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire following his employment in 1809 of the architect Jeffry Wyatt (later Sir Jeffry Wyattville) to aggrandise the library and other apartments at Belton. Amongst Belton's contemporary furniture was a rosewood centre table, whose 'altar' plinth with 'Apollo' griffin monopodiae reflected the antique manner promoted by T. Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (F. Macpherson, Belton House Guide Book, n.d., p. 5).