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Lot Essay
These elegant silken-figured tables of golden satinwood are wreathed with flower garlands in the fashion introduced in the late 1770s by the Mayfair artist cabinet-maker George Brookshaw (d. 1823). Styled 'Peintre Ebéniste par Extraordinaire', he received the patronage of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV in the early 1780s (L. Wood, 'George Brookshaw (parts 1 & 2)', Apollo, May and June 1991).
Similar tables of this type, with or without festoons of flowers, became the standard design adopted by Gillows of Lancaster and London throughout the 1770s and 1780s. A design for a painted and inlaid table made for Atherton Esq., and a similarly painted tea-table stamped 'Gillows Lancaster' dating to the late 18th/early 19th century is illustrated in S. Stuart Gillows of Lancaster and London, Vol. 1., 2008, pp. 260-261, pls. 263 and 264.
A related pair of card tables with grisaille decoration were supplied to Sir Lionel Tollemache, 5th Earl of Dysart (d. 1799) for Ham House, Surrey and sold Christie's London, 14 July 2001, lot 110 (£58,000).
Similar tables of this type, with or without festoons of flowers, became the standard design adopted by Gillows of Lancaster and London throughout the 1770s and 1780s. A design for a painted and inlaid table made for Atherton Esq., and a similarly painted tea-table stamped 'Gillows Lancaster' dating to the late 18th/early 19th century is illustrated in S. Stuart Gillows of Lancaster and London, Vol. 1., 2008, pp. 260-261, pls. 263 and 264.
A related pair of card tables with grisaille decoration were supplied to Sir Lionel Tollemache, 5th Earl of Dysart (d. 1799) for Ham House, Surrey and sold Christie's London, 14 July 2001, lot 110 (£58,000).