A REGENCY BRASS-MOUNTED BROWN OAK, OAK, EBONISED AND EBONY INLAID GAMES-TABLE

This table relates to a group of furniture made in oak and holly by George Bullock (1777/8-1818) for Matthew Robinson Boulton of Great Tew Park, Oxfordshire, between 1816 and 1817 (sold by his descendent, the late Major Eustace Robb, Great Tew Park, Christie's house sale, Oxfordshire, 27-29 May 1987, lot 14 (in particular)).

Correspondence began between the two men in December 1815 when Bullock was invited to visit Tew 'with a view to the preparation of the furniture' although it is evident that the two men had had contact with one another prior to this occasion. This letter is just the first recorded in a sequence of thirty-four letters between the cabinetmaker and client and which accompany a forty-two page bill for furnishing the three principal rooms. Much of the furniture Bullock supplied to Tew Park is rendered distinctive by its considered simplicity, particularly when we compare this group with Bullock's commissions for the Duke of Atholl and the Duke of Palmella.

Listed in the invoice for the furniture is 'An Oak Chess & Back-gammon table inlaid with Holly and white mouldings. Brass rail round the edge £22.' This table would appear to be of a similar model, although there are slight variations between this table and the offered lot, namely the use of holly inlay as opposed to ebony. The design for the top of this table survives in the Wilkinson tracings and is reproduced in Clive Wainwright et al, George Bullock, Cabinet Maker, 1988, fig. 31. In addition, some further examples of this form, of which five are known, have an H-form turned stretcher and appear to vary in size. A closely related example is illustrated in C Wainwright, et al, George Bullock Cabinet Maker, London, 1988, p. 110, fig. 47.