BY GEORGE BULLOCK, CIRCA 1817

This linen press was part of the commission of furniture made in oak and holly by George Bullock (1777/8-1818) for Matthew Robinson Boulton of Great Tew Park, Oxfordshire, between 1816 and 1817. In total seven wardrobes were invoiced in 1817, five at £21 each, described as of oak with holly mouldings, and two of wainscot at £20 each. In a letter of 23 December 1817 Boulton's Clerk Walker commented that 'It is observed that the charges for the Wardrobes of common Wainscot Oak are within One Pound of those for the Dark-Oak. Pray is there no mistake in this respect?' Having queried the matter again on 8 January 1818, Bullock replied on 13 January that 'the dark Oak Wardrobes cost one pound more in workmanship than the Wainscot ones, to you I have made no difference in the price of the wood, which is not of the Richest kind altho [sic] we do in general charge it at considerably more'.

Correspondence initially began between Boulton and Bullock in December 1815 when Bullock was invited to visit Tew 'with a view to the preparation of the furniture', although it is evident that the two men had been in contact with one another prior to this occasion. This letter is just the first recorded in a sequence of thirty-four letters between the cabinetmaker and client and which accompany a forty-two-page bill for furnishing the three principal rooms. Much of the furniture Bullock supplied to Tew Park is rendered distinctive by its considered simplicity, particularly when this group is compared with Bullock's commissions for the Duke of Atholl and the Duke of Palmella.