Gillows Regency Mahogany Draw Leaf Dining Table

An early 19th Century Gillows of Lancaster mahogany rectangular table with two draw leaves fitted with hand scoops. This is fitted with one central drawer to the frieze and five dummy drawers which allow for the draw leaf mechanisms. All the drawers have turned wooden pulls. The whole is raised on four reeded, turned, tapered legs terminating in brass cups and castors stamped Cope and Collinson Patent. Table Open: 45.5”, 115 cm x 63.5”, 161 cm / Table closed 45.5”, 115 cm x 34”, 86 cm / Height: 29.25”, 74 cm. Literature: Susan Stuart’s “Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840” plate 242 showing a dining table dating from 1825 with an identical leg, and numerous other examples of pieces with this exact leg. It is rare to find a piece which so closely compares with other tables by Gillows but is not stamped. However, the quality of the timbers, ingenuity of the draw leaf system, turned reeded leg, applied mouldings to the stiles and frieze, quality of construction and overall appearance of this fine table make it reasonably easy to attribute to the Gillows workshops. Note: The design for a “Universal Table” appears in Thomas Sheraton’s “The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book” published in 1793. He went on to describe it thus: “The use of this piece is to answer the purpose of both a breakfast and dining-table. When both the leaves are slipped under the bed, it will then serve as a breakfast-table; when one leaf is out, as in this view, it will accomodate five persons as a dining-table; and if both are out, it will admit of eight, being near seven feet long and three feet six inches in width.” In the following technical description he goes on to talk about the pins under the central leaf as well as the material to stop the flaps rubbing and “At the under side of the flaps must be goged out finger holes to draw them out by.”