Helen Langford Sold at Auction Prices

A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLACK AND GOLD CHINESE LACQUER CENTRE TABLE

Attributed to Gillows The rectangular lacquer top depicting birds in flowering branches, with a pierced key-fret gallery, on ebonised end-supports with giltwood baluster columns, the downswept legs with leaf-wrapped brass caps and castors, the underside with batten carrying-holes 291/2 in. (75 cm.) high; 32 in. (81.5 cm.) wide; 201/2 in. (52 cm.) deep PROVENANCE Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Bt. (1888-1939), Trent Park, Hertfordshire. LITERATURE C. Hussey, 'Trent Park, Hertfordshire - II', Country Life, 17 January 1931, p. 70, fig. 8. 'Trent Park', The Antique Collector, December 1938, p. 348. NOTES With its Grecian spindle-ends with sunk lozenge panels, this table corresponds to an 1818 pattern for a 'spindle end' table which features in Messrs. Gillows of London and Lancaster's Estimate Sketch Book (Westminster City Archives, illustrated in G. Wills, Craftsmen and Cabinet-Makers of Classic English Furniture, London, 1974, p.123). Most often executed in rosewood, this pattern was also adapted for games-tables, such as that illustrated in C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of English Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p.497, fig.1022), as well as that sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 18 October 2001, lot 308. With its ebonised and parcel-gilt 'spindle end' base surmounted by a panel of 18th Century Chinese lacquer, this Grecian table is a particularly sophisticated and refined example of the Gillows pattern. However, the exceptional quality of execution and the use 'Etruscan' ebonising onto a mahogany - as opposed to a more economical softwood ground, is characteristic of the firm, as can be seen, for instance, on the ebonised suite of furniture supplied by Gillows to Peter Langford- Brooke for Mere Hall, Cheshire (sold by the Executors of the late Mrs. Helen Langford-Brooke, Mere Hall, Christie's house sale, 23 May 1994, lots 85-93).