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Gillows: A George III Mahogany Carlton House Desk

england , circa 1790

SOLD

A very fine George III mahogany Carlton House desk, attributed to Gillows

Provenance

Property from the Estate of the late Lady Joyce Heathcoat Amory of Knightshayes Court, Tiverton, sold Sotheby's London, Important English Furniture, 13 November 1998, lot 157
Christie's London, 22 January 2009, lot 171
Sotheby's London, Collections, 31 October 2018, lot 451 where:
Re-acquired on behalf of the family

Stock number

N11.151
Height: 39³/₄ in (100.97 cm)
Width: 64 in (162.56 cm)
Depth: 25¹/₄ in (64.14 cm)
One of the earliest references to desks of this type is found in an entry from the Prince of Wales' accounts in the Royal Archives which reveals an insight into a table of this form supplied by John Kerr, a favoured cabinet-maker of the Prince Regent:
Feb 5 1790
To a Large Elegant Sattinwood Writing table containing 15 Drawers and two Cupboards Top covered with superfine Green Cloth to rise Occasionally the whole Varnish'd and Polish'd Compleat
£20

The account verifies the existence of such a table in the late 18th century, supplied directly to the Prince for Carlton House prior to the general release of comparative designs such as those in George Hepplewhite's The Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices and Thomas Sheraton's  The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book. In 1814 Rudolph Ackermann included a French fashioned writing table with rounded cartonnier section in his Repository of Arts naming it a ‘Carlton House table' and thereby implying its origins.

Knightshayes Court, Tiverton, Devon, now part of The National Trust,  is a masterpiece of High Victorian architecture designed by William Burges in 1869.
H. Roberts, `The First Carlton House Table?', Furniture History Journal, 1995, pp. 124-128.
G. Hepplewhite, The Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices, 2nd ed., 1793, pl. 21.
T. Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, pl. 60.
P. Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture & Interiors, Holland, 1984, p. 81, pl. 63.
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