A FINE AND RARE REGENCY GILT-BRASS-MOUNTED LACQUER, CALAMANDER AND FRUITWOOD WRITING TABLE ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS CIRCA 1810

with two frieze mahogany-lined drawers on each side.  Losses, repairs to feet.

Arthur S. Vernay, Inc., New York

Handbook, Arthur S. Vernay, Inc, October 1940, pp. 52-53, no. 166

The lacquer top with lifting and cracquelure, horizontal age cracks with butterfly patch repairs to underside, the top with some minor chips and stress cracks throughout with minor areas of inpainting, calamander side panels and drawer fronts with areas of shrinkage to veneers and with vertical age cracks, a small section approximately 3 inches in length of the beaded stringing to one side panel lacking, one drawer lacking key hole escutcheon, one foot of one trestle support with patched repaired break with some inpainting, the other foot with plugged repair, the other trestle with some small chips to veneer, overall with some old marks, scratches, scuffs and bruises consistent with age and use.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This rare writing table, with inset Chinese black and parcel-gilt lacquer, is of a form used by the Lancaster and London firm of Gillows.   A rosewood table on lyre-form supports, with similar gilt-metal beading, pulls and escutcheons, arched stretcher and gilt-metal casters in the library at Shugborough, Staffordshire, is illustrated, Country Life, September 2, 1971, p.547.  Shugborough was remodelled at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the architect Samuel Wyatt (d.1807), and the Shugborough table has been traditionally been attributed to Gillows on the grounds of their close ties to the Wyatt architectural dynasty.

The Gillows attribution is reinforced by the use of identical star-shaped handles and anthemion escutcheons on a set of three side cabinets (described by Gillow as 'commodes with neat metal ornaments') supplied by the firm in 1806 to the Duke of Atholl's London house at 7 Portman Square; see A. Coleridge, 'The firm of Gillow & Co. at Blair Castle', Connoisseur, September 1964, pp. 91-92.  An octagonal work table, circa 1812, with identical gilt-metal pulls, stellate backplates and palmette escutcheons, is found at Tatton Park, near Knutsford, Cheshire, illustrated, Goodison and Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park', The Journal of the Furniture History Society, 1970, pp. 14-15, pl. 23A.  Wilbraham Egerton (1781-1856) commissioned the firm of Gillows of Lancaster to refurnish Tatton Park upon inheriting it from his father in 1811.

A related table from the collection of the 5th Baron Brownlow of Belton House, Lincolnshire, and probably supplied by Gillows for the 2^nd Baron Brownlow, was sold Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1987, lot 99, later sold in these rooms, October 18, 1997, lot 502 and sold again, Christie's, New York, October 17, 2003, lot 176.  Another related table, formerly in the Moller Collection, sold Sotheby's, London, November 19, 1993, lot 127.  The Moller table was illustrated in R.W. Symonds, Furniture Making in 17th and 18th Century England, London 1955, fig. 187.

Similar box casters with foliate clasps, often used by Gillows, are illustrated, N. Goodison, 'The Victoria and Albert Museum's Collection of Metal-Work Pattern Books', The Journal of the Furniture History Society, vol. XI, 1975, pp. 1-32, fig. 54