Lot 28
A George III mahogany and sycamore marquetry serpentine dressing commode attributed to Gillows
20 November 2013, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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A George III mahogany and sycamore marquetry serpentine dressing commode
attributed to Gillows
The shaped rectangular moulded top above a fitted drawer enclosing a gilt tooled leather lined slide and three divisions, above three further long graduated drawers flanked by riband tied foliate inlaid and engraved canted angles, with shaped sides, on shaped bracket feet, 104cm wide, 60cm deep, 85cm high (40.5in wide, 23.5in deep, 33in high).
The shaped rectangular moulded top above a fitted drawer enclosing a gilt tooled leather lined slide and three divisions, above three further long graduated drawers flanked by riband tied foliate inlaid and engraved canted angles, with shaped sides, on shaped bracket feet, 104cm wide, 60cm deep, 85cm high (40.5in wide, 23.5in deep, 33in high).
Footnotes
A chest of this pattern by Gillows, ordered through Gillows and Taylor of Oxford Street, circa 1769 which is thought to have been supplied to John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke and 9th Earl of Dorset (1745-1799) for Knole, Kent, sold Christie's, London, 9th June 2005, lot 279. It bears a rare hand-written shipping label to the reverse for Gillows & Taylor. Robert Gillow II opened a London shop at 176 Oxford Street in 1769 entering into a partnership with his cousin William Taylor and the firm appears in the London Trade Directories for 1769-1777 as 'Gillows & Taylor'. The Duke of Dorset commode was recorded in the Journal of the Gillow brothers in Lancaster in June 1772 as 'intended for the Duke of Dorset' and with 'inlaid corners'. The marquetry canted angles, mirror those on the celebrated inlaid and carved bookcase by Gillows probably made for Mrs Mary Hutton-Rawlinson (latterly with Apter-Fredericks London), the widow of a wealthy West Indies merchant (See Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Suffolk 2008, Vol.I, pp. 362-377. This marquetry may have been the work of a John Norris who worked for Gillows in Lancaster from July 1772 until August 1773. Norris was responsible for inlaying several pairs 'of commode corners, including in January 1773 'another pair of commode corners large in ribbon festoon way' which may well link him to the marquetry on both the commode offered here, the Duke of Dorset commode and the Hutton-Rawlinson bookcase, see S.Stuart, ibid., Vol I., pp.364-65.
A related serpentine chest with differing marquetry canted angles composed of intertwined foliate boughs is illustrated in C.Claxton Stevens and S.Whittington, The Norman Adams Collection, Suffolk 1983 p.371.