ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, CIRCA 1790, RETAILED BY JAMES WINTER & SONS

Gillows of London and Lancaster, with their trade in the finest mahogany, were quick to draw inspiration from the fashionable patterns published from 1754-1762 by Thomas Chippendale and his rival cabinet-makers. They were also to develop a highly functional 'harlequin' library desk, with rising top and secretaire or fitted drawer, that was to become a masterpiece of the firm's cabinet-work. A popular feature of many of these Gillows desks was a frieze drawer with alphabet-inscribed medallions inlaid on lidded compartments. This model conforms to the pattern, fitted with cupboards rather than a range of lower drawers, dated 1789 executed for the Earl of Shrewbury and made by T. Blackburn (illustrated in L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, 1995, pl. 24). Gillows' most famous desk of this type, with recessed cupboard, was supplied in 1810 for Sir Walter Scott's Edinburgh house. Its cost of 'about £30 ready money' was funded from the success of his poem 'The Lady of the Lake', and it was inspired by one that he had seen at Rokeby Hall, Yorkshire. After visiting Rokeby in that year, Scott had written to his host 'You know I fell in love with your Library table and now that The Lady has put crowns into my purse I would willingly treat myself unto the like'. Scott's Gillows desk was later transferred to Abbotsford, where it appears, laden with books, in a view of his study executed in 1832 (C. Wainwright, The Romantic Interior, London, 1989, p. 196, color pl. 162).

This desk bears the stamp of the retailer James Winter who founded his business at 101 Wardour Street in 1823. The business survived until 1870, when it was operating from 151, 153 and 155 Wardour Street (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 992-3 and C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 47 and figs. 1020-3).