A DOCUMENTARY GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE CHEST BY GILLOWS

A DOCUMENTARY GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE CHEST BY GILLOWS

SIGNED AND DATED 'WILLIAM BECKETT 1789'

inlaid with boxwood edging and fitted with four long graduated drawers, the top with a baize lined slide, the underside inscribed in pen 'James Austin', each drawer signed in pencil, the top drawer 'Wm Beckett Maker Lancaster 1789', with original gilt brass leaf and flower handles each with an oval paterae boss, on slender French bracket feet

83.8cm high, 115cm wide, 58.5cm deep

Provenance

Almost certainly William Rawlinson, a wealthy Manchester merchant of Ancoats Hall. He was an ancestor of Edward Croft-Murray's mother, Amy (nee James).

From the collection of Edward Croft-Murray CBE (1907-1980).

Catalogue Note

William Beckett was a cabinet maker and joiner, son of James Beckett of Wray, near Lancaster. He was apprenticed to William Blackburn in 1771 and admitted freeman c.1779-80. He is named in the Gillows archives between 1786-1800 for 'mouding claws' and signed the Gillows' journeymen's price agreement in 1785. Lindsay Boynton states that he was involved in 'designing' furniture for the Lancaster branch. The Dictionary of English Furniture also states that he was 'Possibly the maker of the large chest of drawers, mahogany veneer, oak carcase, bowfronted, belonging to the late Edward Croft-Murray and traced to William Rawlinson of Ancoats Hall, which he rented from the Moseley's in the later 18th century. Inscriptions in black lead on underside of bottom of third drawer and on outside of back of third drawer: 'William Becket Maker 1789''. We believe the current lot is the said chest although it is serpentine rather than bowfronted.

William Rawlinson is recorded in the Gillows Estimate Sketch Book having ordered 'two cases' in 1786 (93/380) and a dining table in 1795 (97/1204). See Lindsay Boynton, 'Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800', p. 215.