A pair of George IV parcel-gilt mahogany hall tables attributed to Gillows circa 1820

A drawing for identical tables exists in the The Gillow Archive dated April 5, 1821 with the inscription 'Miss Walker  Whitehaven / Two of these' with everything except 'Miss Walker' crossed out, is found: 344/100, Estimate Sketch Book 1815-1822, folio number 3099.  Below the sketch, there is the inscription 'Ferguson & Co.'.  The design is described as 'A Mahg. Hall Table' and dated 1821, the top of Spanish mahogany with mahogany underframing and with the following measurements: height 2 ft 9 in.; width 2 ft; depth 1 ft. 8 in., almost identical measurements to the present pair. They were made by Edward Cooper, one of Gillows' journeymen cabinet makers who was paid £1 15s 7d; the wood and other materials were itemized and the estimated cost (or prime cost, before they added their profit) to the firm for materials and labor was £4 3s 1d.  George Wilson and D (Duke) Ball did the turning, Edward Cooper was paid for 'nulling pattra's [sic] and reeding scroll ends', the X-frame sides of the table.

The tables were probably executed for Ferguson & Co., as noted on the sketch, recorded at 117 Oxford Street in Kelly`s London Commercial Directory of 1822.   James William Ferguson served his apprenticeship with Gillows in Lancaster before moving to London and forming a partnership with another ex- employee of the firm, Henry Whiteside.

Sotheby's would like to thank Susan E. Stuart, author of the newly-published Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008, 2 vols., for discovering the drawing of these tables and assistance in cataloguing this lot.