A FINE GEORGE III BURR YEW CYLINDER BUREAU

A FINE GEORGE III BURR YEW CYLINDER BUREAU

ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, C.1770-80

inlaid with kingwood banding, pierced swan neck cornice above a pendant frieze, above a pair of Gothic lancet arch astragal glazed doors enclosing three adjustable shelves, above a drawer with a printed paper label inscribed 'Exhibited at Luton Museum Bedfordshire 35 in the days of Queen Charlotte Exhibition 1939' the interior fitted with drawers, pigeonholes and a baize lined writing surface on a ratchet, flanked by lift-out pen trays with divisions, on square tapering legs and spade feet

240cm high, 94.6cm wide, 51.2cm deep

Provenance

The Earls of Derby, Knowsley Park, Liverpool.
Christie's, London, 26th May 1937, The Property of a Lady of Title, lot 130.

Acquired by Sir Sydney Barratt from Phillips of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, for Summerhill, Staffordshire and later installed in the Drawing Room, Crowe Hall, Bath, 1961 and by descent.

Christie's, London, The Barratt Collection-From Crowe Hall, Bath, 16th December 2010, lot 145.

Literature

See Ralph Fastnedge, Sheraton Furniture, fig.74.

Exhibited

'The Days of Queen Charlotte', The Luton Museum, Bedford, 1939, no.35.

Catalogue Note

The interior of this cylinder bureau, with its ratcheted writing slope and pen trays relate to a design by Thomas Sheraton in his Cabinet-Makers and Upholsterers Drawing Book, 1791-94, pl.2.The design of the handle is a known Gillow's model, see Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, appendix D. p.335, pl.b.