AN EARLY VICTORIAN BURR-WALNUT PEDESTAL DESK

SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY GILLOWS

Details

AN EARLY VICTORIAN BURR-WALNUT PEDESTAL DESK
SECOND QUARTER 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY GILLOWS
Of kidney shape, with inset tooled brown leather writing-surface above one long and two short mahogany-lined frieze drawers, the concave kneehole flanked by two convex-fronted pedestals each with four graduated drawers with locking stile, the reverse with three central shelves, on plinth base on casters, locks stamped JBRAMAH/124 PICCADILLY
29 in.(73.5 cm.) high, 52 in.(132 cm.) wide, 28½ in. (72 cm.) deep

Provenance

Acquired from Mallett, London, in 1996.

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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.

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