A Victorian desk in richly figured burr walnut stamped Gillows

68 A Victorian desk in richly figured burr walnut, stamped Gillows

Height: 29in (74cm) Width: 51½in (131cm) Depth: 28in (71cm).

This fine quality kidney-shaped desk has a leather-inset top above three drawers in the frieze and four graduated drawers in each pedestal. The drawers all have their original gilt brass handles and the sides lock by means of a winged pilaster with a sliding panel at the capital which marks the keyhole. The back has an adjustable shelf. The whole is decorated with kingwood banding. Stamped Gillows inside the top drawer, the locks stamped ‘Bramah 124 Piccadilly’. English, circa 1860. The kidney-shaped desk first appeared as a writing or dressing-table during the Louis XV period (1715-1774) in France before being introduced into England in the late 18th century. It evolved to incorporate drawers and often small shelves in the Sheraton period, see ‘The Cabinet Directory’ of 1803. The finest Victorian examples were made by Gillows following the design for ‘An Oak Pedestal and Kidney Table supplied to Ferguson & Co.’ in the ‘Gillows Estimate Sketch Books’ (1840). See Susan E Stuart ‘Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840,’ (ibid), Vol. I, p.339, pl. 393 for a similar walnut desk also stamped and with Bramah locks, which once belonged to the cricket writer Brian Johnston (1912-1994).