Fine George IV Period Tray Top Occasional Table by Gillows c.1825

The table with a wavy, rectangular tray top is supported on two turned and carved end supports with a turned stretcher. The cabriole legs have pad feet which retain their original castors. Around the lower part of the frieze of the table there is a fine bead and reel moulding and the piece retains an excellent colour and patination with finely chosen veneers. This fine table relates to a design for a tray top work table, with pull out bag slide, first recorded in the Gillows estimate books in 1822 and illustrated below and front cover of Susan Stewart’s Vol I, Book of Gillows. By the George IV period, the distinctive shaped tray top had been retained but the design of the end supports had been updated to reflect the fashion for carved detail rather than the classical lyre supports seen in the design drawing. The present table retains the end drawer, adding another to the opposite end, but does not feature a bag slide, indicating that by this date the piece was intended to be used as an occasional table rather than as a work table. Although unsigned, there is no doubt whatsoever that this is a piece of Gillows furniture.