A similar chest of drawers illustrated in The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised edition, 1954
THE RONALD D. PHILLIPS CHEST OF DRAWERS, English, circa 1780
Width: 43¾ in; 111 cm
Depth: 22½ in; 57 cm
Further images
A George III mahogany chest of drawers almost certainly by Gillows.
Note: The chest retains its original brass handles.
The design of this striking chest of drawers with its contrasting ebonised mouldings corresponds to a suite of furniture designed and made for the Strickland family by Gillows in 1778, either for their London residence or for Sizergh Castle, Cumbria. The oval loop brass handles with central paterae are specific to Gillows and were used only by them.
An almost identical but slightly narrower model with smaller loop handles, also specific to Gillows, was formerly in the celebrated Leidesdorf collection in New York.
A very similar chest of drawers, but with different handles and carved ebonised swags to the top drawer, attributed to Ince & Mayhew, is illustrated in The Dictionary of English Furniture; it was sold for a record price of £679,650 (including premium) at Christie’s in June 2008, and is now in a private collection in England.
Provenance
Pelham Galleries Ltd., London, England;
Ronald D. Phillips, London, England.
Literature
Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised edition, 1954, vol. II, p. 52, fig. 56.
Sotheby’s, ‘A Collection of English Furniture, Barometers and Clocks formed by a Gentleman residing in New York’, sale catalogue, New York, 27-28 June 1974, pp. 186-7, lot 101.
Susan E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, 2008, vol. II, pp. 22-5.
Christie’s, ‘Simon Sainsbury - The creation of an English Arcadia’, sale catalogue, vol. II, 18 June 2008, pp. 140-41, lot 250.
