Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Lot 71TP,Y
A large and impressive George IV rosewood and brass inlaid partners' library table attributed to Gillows Circa 1825
3 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£7,000 - £10,000
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Thomas Moore
Head of Department
A large and impressive George IV rosewood and brass inlaid partners' library table attributed to Gillows
Circa 1825
The rectangular top with an ovolo edge and inset with a gilt tooled leather writing surface encompassed by a scrolled stylised foliate inlaid border, above a frieze inlaid with a repeating pattern of alternating anthemia and acanthus sprays, incorporating six short opposing mahogany lined drawers, over a beaded lower edge, on four angled c-scroll and acanthus carved, lappet clasped and stiff leaf wrapped s-scroll form legs, terminating in circular gadrooned plinth feet, 205cm wide x 134cm deep x 78cm high, (80 1/2in wide x 52 1/2in deep x 30 1/2in high)
The rectangular top with an ovolo edge and inset with a gilt tooled leather writing surface encompassed by a scrolled stylised foliate inlaid border, above a frieze inlaid with a repeating pattern of alternating anthemia and acanthus sprays, incorporating six short opposing mahogany lined drawers, over a beaded lower edge, on four angled c-scroll and acanthus carved, lappet clasped and stiff leaf wrapped s-scroll form legs, terminating in circular gadrooned plinth feet, 205cm wide x 134cm deep x 78cm high, (80 1/2in wide x 52 1/2in deep x 30 1/2in high)
Footnotes
Provenance
The offered lot was almost certainly supplied to William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (d. 1833), Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 16 November 1989, lot 80.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 February 1995, lot 153.
Subsequently purchased Christie's, London, 22 November 2007, Important English Furniture, lot 730.
It seems highly likely that the offered lot was a library table made for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, by the Gillows firm sometime during the 1820s. Designed and executed in a distinctly English interpretation of the Louis XIV Grecian (or Neo Baroque) vein, which reached the height of fashion during the reign of George IV, this example is similar to a number of such pieces related to the contemporary output of the renowned court architect, Sir Jeffry Wyatville (d. 1840).
There is precedence for this strongly implied provenance - the fact that Gillows provided the 4th Earl with a variety of furniture between 1822 and 1832 is indeed significant. Associated tables, albeit more intricately carved and with more gilt adornments than the above model, were commissioned of Gillows for the Drawing Room at Wentworth. These were produced alongside a suite of giltwood armchairs also for the same space, the latter of which came to be called the 'Whistle-Jacket Room' in subsequent years. It is interesting that the date of 1832 appears next to the name of one of Gillows' craftsmen on a sofa which was evidently made to accompany this group, see C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Early Georgian, 1955, London, fig. 252, p. 154.
The present lot is also connected, at least aesthetically, to some comparable French-inspired furniture supplied to Hackwood Park, Hampshire and Tatton Hall, Cheshire, likewise over the course of the 1820s. Both these Gillow commissions were overseen by the architect, Lewis Wyatt (d. 1853). The wonderful furnishings at both locations include the celebrated 'Boulle' inlaid Hackwood library table provided upon behalf of William Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton. This features in S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, Vol. I, 2008, Woodbridge, pl. 306 & pp.'s 289-290.
Arguably the closest Gillows comparable, made during the same period of 1820-1830, is another rosewood and brass inlaid partners' library table of identical proportions to the offered example. This equally magnificent version, which also appears in S. Stuart, Ibid, pl.'s 308-310, pp.'s 291-292, is recorded therein as having been offered for sale with Tennants, in Leyburn, North Yorkshire. It appears very similar indeed, with only a few relatively minor differences between the two.
The current model has a plain moulded top edge and a beaded lower border to its frieze, whereas there is more elaborately carved edging on the Tennants table. Added to this, the brass inlaid pattern on the border of the latter's top seems largely in keeping with the French influence of Boulle, whilst the scrolled stylised foliate inlaid surround on the top of the present lot is much more redolent of the Wilkinson tracings, the designs from which were hugely popular in the years immediately following the death of the famous Regency era cabinet maker, George Bullock.