Object Description
A fine quality early 19th century Regency period sofa table in the manner of Gillows of Lancaster and London
English, circa 1810.
Why we like it
Elegantly understated, this table is useful and versatile with its drop flaps and two drawers.
A pair of very similar tables were supplied by the Gillows firm to Stephen Tempest of Broughton Hall, North Yorkshire in 1803, illustrated in Susan E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1740–1830, vol. I, p. 264, pl. 268. The firm wrote of this table to a customer in 1801: ‘…The most fashionable form now used are what we call sofa tables of which we have enclosed a sketch which will give Your Ladyship a better idea of the form, than any description can do, the two leaves fall down like a Pembroke table…’ (ibid) A corresponding design for this type of table from the 1801 Estimate Sketch Book is preserved in the Gillows archives at Westminster.