A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN PLUM PUDDING MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS

Several examples of armchairs in this 'Old English' revival style were produced by Gillows, and a nearly identical brown oak example, carved by Rigby and made by Robert Lawson, is illustrated in S.E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, 2008, vol. II, p. 231, pl. 225. A chair of the same model and made in yew was drawn in the Estimate Sketch Book on 13 June 1827, and scrawled under the drawing is Dallam Tower, the house near Milnethorpe owned by the Wilson family who had patronized Gillows for generations. Other examples were also made in mahogany, walnut and elm. The chair pattern compares closely to an eighteenth century example from Boyton House, Wiltshire as illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1927, vol. I, p. 237, fig. 91.