Fine Regency period mahogany dressing or writing side table, attributed to Gillows of Lancaster and London

English, circa 1815

The rectangular solid top with reeded edge and channeled three-quarter gallery, above two mahogany-lined frieze drawers, flanked by recessed cockbeaded panels inlaid with highly figured mahogany, the whole raised on four finely ring-turned, tapering legs with brass capped castors.

This dressing-table with its sunken panels of exotically flame-figured mahogany heading the front legs, relates closely to Messrs. Gillows' 1813 commission for Hackwood, Hampshire. In July 1813 Gillows delivered six dressing-tables for the 2nd Duke of Bolton, each with a pair of drawers flanking each side of the concave front. They were described in Gillows' Memorandum of July 1813, North East Bedroom, as: 'To a Mahogany five drawer Dressing Table on turned Reeded legs as before 8 16s 6d'. Four, varying in size, were sold Christie's House Sale, 20-22 April 1998, lots 356 & 358-360.

This pattern was already in existence slightly earlier, illustrated in the firm's Estimate Sketch Book for 1809, No. 3247. In 1811 Gillows' supplied a 'Five drawer Dressing Table with rim on turned reeded legs' for Parlington Hall, Yorkshire; and in 1812 supplied related tables to Tatton Park, Cheshire (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978, vol. II, no. 500; and N. Goodison and J. Hardy, 'Gillows at Tatton Park', Furniture History, 1970, pl. 19B and 21B). For an identical example attributed to Gillows see Christie's, London, 11 September 2008, Lot 54 (£3,750). Closely related examples, stamped or attributed to Gillows were sold Christie's, London, 23 November 2006, Lot 138 (£9,600) and 17 May 2017, Lot 86 (£11,250).