BY GILLOWS, THE CRAFTSMAN JOHN HERBERT, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The bedroom-apartment table, with its top bordered by reeds in the Grecian fashion promoted around 1800 by the architect Sir John Soane, relates to a sketch for this type of table which appears in Gillows' Estimate Sketch Book, dated 1810, and called by them a 'chamber writing-table' (No. 344/144, p. 11, Westminster City Archives). It was executed by John Herbert, who is listed as a journeyman working for Gillows around 1800. He is likely to be father of the John Herbert who became a freeman of the Lancaster cabinet-maker's Guild in 1829 having served his apprenticeship since 1820 with Leonard Redmayne (d. 1869) (G. Beard, (ed.) Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 423). Gillows supplied four tables of this pattern in 1811 to T. W. Egerton for Tatton Park, Cheshire (N. Goodison and J. Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park, Cheshire', Furniture History, 1970, pp. 28, 30, 32 and 35, pl. 16B).

A chamber table of closely related form was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 27 April 2006, lot 328 (£11,400) and another was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 26 January 2005, lot 136 (£9,000).
(See also lot 380 in this sale.)