BY GILLOWS, THE CRAFTSMAN WILLIAM BARROW, JUNIOR, 1844

Details

A VICTORIAN POLLARD OAK AND PARCEL-GILT WELLINGTON CHEST
By Gillows, the craftsman William Barrow, junior, 1844
The rectangular top above six drawers each with ebony handles and locking stile, the top drawer fitted with a fall front enclosing five adjustable pigeon-holes, the remaining drawers fitted with leather hinged lids and all with wooden screw stops, on a moulded stepped plinth, the top and bottom drawers signed in pencil, 'W Barrow' and one dated '1844', the lock replaced
47¼ in. (120 cm.) high; 24 in. (61 cm.) wide; 16 in. (40.5 cm.) deep

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Lot Essay

The tall drawer-chest, with single locking mechanism, evolved from the French 'chiffonier' nest-of-boxes; and was popularly known as a Wellington chest after 1815. This chest, with pilasters supporting a Grecian cornice, is designed in Gillow's French antique fashion, and relates in form to a chest, bearing the stamp 'Gillows Lancaster' and concealing a secretaire behind tromp l'oeil drawers (see Sotheby's London, 5 March 2008, lot 128). The design for this form of chest in walnut with ebony knobs appears in the Gillow's Estimate Sketch Book, dated April 1842 made at a cost of £9.12.3

The signature on the top and bottom drawers is almost certainly that of William Barrow, junior, cabinet-maker of Liverpool who was apprenticed to Leonard Redmayne in 1829 and became a freeman in 1837.

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