Pair of Rosewood Flower or Crocus Tables - Attributed to Gillows

A pair of 19th Century English antique rosewood flower or crocus tables, attributed to Gillows, each of rectangular form with a tray top with a removable central panel above a tin liner for growing bulbs disguised within the frieze, all raised on a tripod turned, fluted and gadrooned support with acanthus scroll feet. The tray top with a wavy scrolling edge was a particular device used by Gillows, so much so that Susan Stuart uses a table with this top for the front cover of the second volume of her definitive books ‘Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840’, Woodbridge, 2008. She also illustrates a drawing in Gillow’s Estimate Sketch book of 1822, for a nearly identical mahogany table made for Sir Y.D. Hesketh. In the same year a rosewood version was made for Ferguson & Co. It is interesting to note that the rosewood table cost twice as much at £1.