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Tuesday 11th October
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207 A GEORGE III MAHOGANY RECTANGULAR LIBRARY DESK ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS OF LANCASTER,the hinged top folding to reveal a double adjustable drawing table, above a pull-out secretaire, with fall front false drawer fascia, the interior with
hinged lift top compartment, inlaid and painted with ovals and letter pairs V X and W Y etc., above a cupboard base with fitted deep drawers.
124cm wide x 69cm deep
This handsome example of Georgian library furniture closely follows the pattern that Gillows produced in 1782 designed by Richard Gillow to a
commission from his brother Robert, and is most likely to have been made by that firm. They called it a writing or library table ‘of New Construc-
tion and Plan of our Invention’. It was the most expensive piece of furniture that the firm had made to date and they guarded its design, insisting it
could only be sold to ‘gentlemen’.
They stressed the quality of the wood, the arrangement of internal drawers with lettered compartments and the double-ratchetted top enabling
writing to be done standing up, if desired, and the other ‘innovations’, most of which are present in the current lot.
€ 2,000 - 4,000