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Lot Essay
This magnificent writing table can be firmly attributed to the illustrious furniture makers, Gillows of Lancaster & London, who were renowned for their exceptional craftsmanship as well as for their use of the finest timbers. It is closely related to designs in the firm’s Estimate Sketch Books from 1803-1815 for sideboards, pedestals, and console tables, many of which employ very similar supports. Of particular note is the design for a pier table for one ‘Rev. H. Edwards’, which is virtually identical in profile, albeit slightly larger; the Edwards table was estimated at £28.14.9 with carriage and dated 23 July 1811 (344/99, April 1803-Aug. 1815, no. 1906).
The inclusion of the rich brass ‘buhl’ or ‘trelliswork’ inlay suggests an early Regency date; this mode of decoration, harking back to the ancien régime reign of ‘The Sun King’, was particularly agreeable to the Francophile inclinations of George, Prince of Wales (d. 1830). This type of ornamentation features throughout Gillows’ oeuvre of the second decade of the 19th century, including to a library table with both ‘première’ and ‘contrepartie’ inlay supplied in May 1813 to William Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton (d. 1850), for Hackwood Park, Hampshire, and to another table, almost certainly by Gillows based on designs in the Estimate Sketch Books, formerly at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire (the first, sold Hackwood Park, Christie’s house sale, 20 April 1998, lot 21; the second, S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, vol. I, Woodbridge, 2008, p. 289, pl. 306; sold Christie’s, London, 16 November 1989, lot 80, and later Sotheby’s, London, 24 February 1995, lot 153). One of the most important Gillows’ library commissions was for Wilbraham Egerton, which included ‘trelliswork panels in the form of ‘brass circles’ and brass mouldings for the doors etc., were sent from London’, now on display at Tatton Park, Cheshire. The presence of brass inlay on furniture possibly suggests production at Gillows' London workshop as metalwork was a specialised trade generally carried on in the neighbourhood of St. Martin’s Lane and Long Acre (ibid., p. 375, pl. 444).
The design for this table was undoubtedly inspired by drawings in Charles Heathcote Tatham’s Etchings representing Fragments of Grecian and Roman Architectural Ornaments (1799) including an antique seat of white marble with this model of supports, pl. 76 (F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1987, p. 53). Tatham visited Rome in the mid-1790s to study antiquities in order to assist the Prince of Wales’ architect, Henry Holland, with the rebuilding and refurbishment of Carlton House, London. Thomas Hope later included very similar designs in his Household Furniture (1807) in the form of lion monopodia tables, pl. 19, no. 5, as did George Smith in his A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture (1808), with ‘hall seats for recesses’, pl. 34.
A near identical library table was sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Davies, Charleville, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, Christie’s house sale, 23-24 January 1978, lot 13.
The inclusion of the rich brass ‘buhl’ or ‘trelliswork’ inlay suggests an early Regency date; this mode of decoration, harking back to the ancien régime reign of ‘The Sun King’, was particularly agreeable to the Francophile inclinations of George, Prince of Wales (d. 1830). This type of ornamentation features throughout Gillows’ oeuvre of the second decade of the 19th century, including to a library table with both ‘première’ and ‘contrepartie’ inlay supplied in May 1813 to William Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton (d. 1850), for Hackwood Park, Hampshire, and to another table, almost certainly by Gillows based on designs in the Estimate Sketch Books, formerly at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire (the first, sold Hackwood Park, Christie’s house sale, 20 April 1998, lot 21; the second, S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, vol. I, Woodbridge, 2008, p. 289, pl. 306; sold Christie’s, London, 16 November 1989, lot 80, and later Sotheby’s, London, 24 February 1995, lot 153). One of the most important Gillows’ library commissions was for Wilbraham Egerton, which included ‘trelliswork panels in the form of ‘brass circles’ and brass mouldings for the doors etc., were sent from London’, now on display at Tatton Park, Cheshire. The presence of brass inlay on furniture possibly suggests production at Gillows' London workshop as metalwork was a specialised trade generally carried on in the neighbourhood of St. Martin’s Lane and Long Acre (ibid., p. 375, pl. 444).
The design for this table was undoubtedly inspired by drawings in Charles Heathcote Tatham’s Etchings representing Fragments of Grecian and Roman Architectural Ornaments (1799) including an antique seat of white marble with this model of supports, pl. 76 (F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1987, p. 53). Tatham visited Rome in the mid-1790s to study antiquities in order to assist the Prince of Wales’ architect, Henry Holland, with the rebuilding and refurbishment of Carlton House, London. Thomas Hope later included very similar designs in his Household Furniture (1807) in the form of lion monopodia tables, pl. 19, no. 5, as did George Smith in his A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture (1808), with ‘hall seats for recesses’, pl. 34.
A near identical library table was sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Davies, Charleville, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, Christie’s house sale, 23-24 January 1978, lot 13.