Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art

Furniture, Clocks & Works of Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 75. A George III sabicu serpentine chest of drawers, circa 1788, attributed to Gillows .

Property from the Curwen collections at Workington Hall, Ewanrigg Hall and Belle Isle, Cumbria

A George III sabicu serpentine chest of drawers, circa 1788, attributed to Gillows

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

November 9, 01:23 PM GMT

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Curwen collections at Workington Hall, Ewanrigg Hall and Belle Isle, Cumbria

A George III sabicu serpentine chest of drawers, circa 1788, attributed to Gillows 


the top drawer fitted with a baize-lined brushing slide and divisions above three further graduated drawers with gilt-lacquer laurel wreath and paterae cast ring pull handles on shaped bracket feet

84cm. high, 107m. wide, 66cm. deep; 2ft. 9in., 3ft. 6in., 2ft. 2in.

Please note the present lot is catalogued as ‘A George III sabicu serpentine chest of drawers, circa 1788, attributed to Gillows’ and not as initially described.
Probably John Christian Curwen (1756–1828) for Workington Hall, Cumbria and probably removed to Belle Isle, Windermere, in the 1930s when Workington Hall was given up;
Thence by descent.
Inventory of the contents of Workington Hall, made by Messrs J R Mitchell and Sons, auctioneers & valuers of Cockermouth, March 1930, probably the 'Mahogany Serpentine Chest of Drawers' listed in Bedroom No. 2, p. 21 (Cumbria Archives, DCU/1/217).

Although the present chest of drawers cannot be identified with complete certainty, it is likely to be one of a pair of commodes supplied to John Christian Curwen for the 'Strangers Room Viz.' at Workington Hall and described in Gillows' Waste Book as '2 very good Mahog. Comode chests of Drawers with slide covered with green Cloth on Top drawer' and 'french feet' (Waste Book, 12 October 1788, p. 2556 (Westminster Archives Centre, 344/12)).


The attribution is given further support through an anonymous design in the Estimate Sketch Book which is described as a 'mahogany comode with slide on top drawer' and relates closely to the present lot (fig. 1). It is perhaps no co-incidence that the drawing beneath is that of a shield back chair supplied for the Hall at Workington.