The elegant giltwood tripod table, in the manner of Gillows, having a beatifically shaped fixed top above a well carved base on a leaf carved baluster stem and standing on cabriole legs and foliate carved scroll feet and surviving from the second quarter of nineteenth century England.
Unknown.
The design of this table is very similar to a Gillows walnut table of 1845 with the rather unusual and recognizable shaped top and carved stem.
Gillows might not be as prestigious a name in English furniture as Chippendale, Hepplewhite or Sheraton, but the firm, based in Lancaster, outlasted all of them. The history of Gillows, from the early eighteenth century to the early twentieth, encapsulates the history of English furniture and its manufacture. Robert Gillow began making furniture around 1730, some 20 years before Thomas Chippendale, and developed first a national and then an international reputation as a supplier of quality furniture to the upper middle classes, the landed gentry, and the aristocracy. The company won commissions to furnish and decorate public buildings in Australia, South Africa, India, Russia, Germany, France and the U.S., and it also executed Pugin’s designs for London’s Palace of Westminster from 1840.
It is always hard to find attractive period giltwood tables that are carved well; the search just ended.
The table is stable, though with some minor movement to the top, useable and in nice decorative condition, there are no major flaws or deficiencies to note aside from one area of loss to the gallery top edging. The gilded finish is probably later but remains nineteenth century with evidence of other paintwork beneath including a black finish and probably a layer beneath that. The top has an attractive flour coloured unrestored finish to it resulting from years of use.
By appointment only.
