ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS OF LANCASTER, THE LOCKS STAMPED BRAMAH, CIRCA 1840

Details

A VICTORIAN BURR WALNUT KIDNEY-SHAPED DESK
ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS OF LANCASTER, THE LOCKS STAMPED BRAMAH, CIRCA 1840
The gilt-tooled brown leather top above three freize drawers, with tulipwood banding, the kneehole flanked by eight further graduated drawers with locking stiles, the reverse with three adjustable bookshelves, on a conforming plinth, the locks stamped J. Bramah, 124 Picadilly, with Ford Inventory No. I-24
28 ½ in. (72.5 cm.) high, 51 ½ in. (131 cm.) wide, 22 ¼ in. (56.5 cm.) deep

Literature

Brown, E. Sixty Years of Interior Design: The World of McMillen, New York, 1982, p. 202 (illustrated in situ in Grosse Pointe, Michigan).

Special notice

Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) at 5pm on the last day of the sale. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services. Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. This sheet is available from the Bidder Registration staff, Purchaser Payments or the Packing Desk and will be sent with your invoice. Lots made of or including (regardless of the percentage) endangered and other protected species of wildlife are marked with the symbol ~ in the catalogue. This material includes, among other things, ivory, tortoiseshell, crocodile skin, rhinoceros horn, whalebone certain species of coral, and Brazilian rosewood. You should check the relevant customs laws and regulations before bidding on any lot containing wildlife material if you plan to import the lot into another country. Several countries refuse to allow you to import property containing these materials, and some other countries require a licence from the relevant regulatory agencies in the countries of exportation as well as importation. In some cases, the lot can only be shipped with an independent scientific confirmation of species and/or age, and you will need to obtain these at your own cost.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This model of desk is based on a design dated 1792 published by Thomas Sheraton in his The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book, London, 1793, pl. 58. The form, with open bookshelves to the reverse, was made by Gillows of London and Lancaster from 1840 to circa 1860 and became one of the firm’s best-known models. It corresponds to two sketches for 'An Oak pedestal and Kidney table' in one of Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books, dated 1840. A stamped Gillow example with the same Bramah lock is illustrated in S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, p. 339, fig. 393. A desk of this model was sold in Apter Fredericks: 75 Years of English Furniture at Christie’s, London, 21 January 2021, lot 70 and another was sold from the Estate of Richard Mellon Scaife at Christie’s, New York, 30 June 2015, lot 451.

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