Lot 1647: Thomas Wilkinson Wallis (1822-1903) and Charles

Thomas Wilkinson Wallis (1822-1903) and Charles Percy Pickering (b.1827): Punch's Library; A Carved Limewood and Pine Wall-Hanging Bookcase, 1850-1851, the cornice carved PUNCH'S LIBRARY flanked with figures of Punch and Judy above a pair of glazed doors enclosing shelves flanked with carved grotesque figures and cornucopia of plenty above a ribbon-tied carved apron, stained finish, 79cm by 30cm by 161cm In November 1850, Louth woodcarver Thomas Wilkinson Wallis received an order from Mr J Brooks of Cheltenham to carve a bookcase including Punch, Judy, Toby and grotesque figures". Wallis designed the details and put Charles Percy Pickering, who had just been taken on by Wallis "to do all the ordinary work" to leave Wallis free to work on Spring, the carving that would win him a medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition, "to carve it under my supervision". Punch's Library was finished in February 1851 at a cost of £14 3s 6d.See Goulding (JW) Autobiography of Thomas Wilkinson Wallis, Sculptor in Wood, and Extracts from His Sixty Years' Journal, Louth, 1899, p 88-91.