A GEORGE IV MAHOGANY TRAY-TOP WORK-TABLE

Gillows' design for a mahogany tray top working table made for Sir T.D.Hesketh was drawn on 23 August 1822, the cost of the table at the time £8.13s.2½d plus 10s. for the finish. The form was evidently popular as related designs spanned a 31 year period from 1820, when the table was described as a 'French work table', until 1851. A very closely related table in rosewood is illustrated in Susan Stuart, Gillows of London and Lancaster 1730-1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol.I, pl.332, p.303. The latter, like the present lot, has a bag slide but no trace of a bag ever having been fitted, and while in 1822 Sir T.D.Hesketh ordered a pink silk bag, it seems that other customers preferred to make their own bag.
An almost identical table was sold Sotheby's, London, 22 April 2004, lot 99.