Lot Details
Lot 567
Victorian Burr-Walnut and Part-Ebonized Kidney-Shaped Desk
By Gillows, mid-19th century, the craftsman John Barrow
The leather-lined shaped top above a mahogany-lined frieze drawer stamped GILLOW, the lock stamped J. T. NEEDS 128 PICCADILLY, LATE J. BRAMAH 134 PICCADILLY, the drawer underside with penciled inscription John Barrow, flanked by five drawers, with a hinged upright locking mechanism headed by a sliding panel, the reverse side with two adjustable shelves, raised on a molded base, on casters. Height 29 inches (73.7 cm), width 52 inches (132 cm), depth 27 inches (68.6 cm).
Derived from a design for 'A Kidney Table,...for reading and writing...: at each end are a number of small drawers' from Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book, 1793, pl. 58, the form of the present lot was very popular during the 19th century. 'An Oak Pedestal and Kidney Table' is found in the Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books, dated 1840, the back also fitted with three shelves. A similar example is illustrated, Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, pp. 338-339, pl. 393.
John Barrow was the son of W. J. Barrow, whose name appears in the Gillow records between 1800-1840. John Barrow was apprenticed to Leonard Redmayne in 1826 and appears in the Gillow records between 1834 and 1848; see Stuart, op. cit., vol. II, p. 215. Related burr walnut kidney-shaped desks stamped Gillow and bearing John Barrow's pencil signature were sold: Sotheby's London, 15 Novmeber 1996, lot 113, Bonhams, London, November 18, 2009, lot 202, and Bonhams, London, June 12, 2013, lot 183.
C The Nelson Doubleday, Jr. Collection
Additional Notes & Condition Report
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