A Regency brass inlaid rosewood drum table attributed to Gillows.
Note: The table retains its original gold tooled purple morocco leather top, which has now faded to a dark green.

The brass inlay to the drawer fronts here (the ‘contre-partie) matches the brass inlay (the corresponding ‘première partie’) on a rosewood folio cabinet supplied by Gillows for the libraries at Hackwood Park at the same time. Première partie and contre-partie are terms specific to brass or tortoiseshell inlay, describing the economical use of a pattern twice, first with timber background and brass pattern, and the second time with brass background and the pattern in timber.

The strong similarities in design to the well documented Hackwood Park library table together with the similar brass inlay and the use of purple leather on both tables support the attribution to Gillows and a Hackwood provenance. It is more than likely that this magnificent table once stood alongside the library table at Hackwood Park.

An entry in the Gillows memorandum book states: ‘Apart from this desk [i.e. the library table] the furniture included a - buhl - drum library table en suite - the table - had a purple leather top to match the desk and purple silk in all the library doors’.