A Late George III Satinwood and Ebonised Side Cabinet by Henry Walker of Lancaster, Circa 1800

Offered Phillips London, 24 November 1998, lot 106 

Henry Walker (fl.1791–1831) appears to have been a joiner and cabinetmaker who worked both independently and as a journeyman for Gillows. He can plausibly be identified with a Henry Walker recorded ‘at the top of the New Road, in Church Street’ Lancaster in June 1805, who in May 1813 removed to ‘commodious premises upon the Green Area, nearly opposite the end of Chapel Street' and was made a freeman in 1823-24, but later declared bankrupt in March 1831. His stamp is found on several surviving pieces in the Gillows taste from the late George III and Regency periods, including a mahogany work table sold Dreweatts Newbury, 23 September 2009, lot 163; a mahogany Pembroke table at Bonham's Leeds, 4 February 2003, lot 619; and a mahogany and satinwood bookcase illustrated in Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge 2008, pls B47-48.