A REGENCY GONCALO ALVES AND CALAMANDER CROSSBANDED WRITING TABLE

The top of this finely made table is finished in a particularly well figured and richly coloured cut of goncalo alves, a hardwood from Brazil known as zebra wood or albuera wood to Regency cabinet-makers. It was especially favoured by Gillows. The handles, which appear to be original, are very close to an early 19th-century pattern-book model illustrated in S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, London, 2008, vol. II, p.335, fig. E.