George IV padouk Carlton House Desk

78 A George IV padouk Carlton house desk A Victorian cabinet in the orientalist style, attributed to Collinson & Lock

Height: 35in (89cm) Width: 44in (112cm) Depth: 27in (68.5cm)

This Colonial hardwood Carlton House desk has a shaped top with an arrangement of small drawers, including a pen tray, on three sides, surmounted by a brass fretwork gallery, the shaped frieze with two disguised drawers, all raised upon cabriole legs with gilt oriental masks on the knees and terminating in sabots above barrel castors. English, circa 1825. This rosewood cabinet has a glazed upper section with two doors and disguised frieze drawers both above and below, the lower section with two shaped open shelves, finely inlaid in mother of pearl with floral scenes and a battle scene on the frieze drawer, later lined in figured green silk. English, circa 1870. The company of Collinson & Lock was founded in the 1860s. They achieved early success, employing some of the leading designers of the Aesthetic Art Movement who experimented with new materials and designs, becoming especially renowned for their distinctive combinations of rosewood and ivory and their intricate Italianate arabesques, whimsical figures and scrolling foliage. They showed an ebonised antique cabinet at the London International Exhibition in 1871, which was immediately purchased for the Victoria and Albert Museum, other versions being shown in Vienna and America and at the 1878 Paris Exposition, they exhibited a number of AngloJapanese pieces by E.W Godwin, their most important designer. The company was merged with Gillows in 1897.