A rare specimen wood box by Gillows, circa 1810, containing 82 wood specimens each of octagonal form over the exterior and interior of the lid, and the front, back and sides of the exterior, mahogany lined interior.
Provenance: Private Collection, UK, until 2022.
A very similar box is in Judges’ Lodgings Museum, Lancaster; purchased in 2005 from the London dealership Harris Lindsay with V & A Purchase and Art Fund grants. It was made for Miss Elizabeth Gifford (or Giffard) of Nerquis Hall, near Mould in Flintshire in 1808, and is fully documented in the Gillows Estimate Sketch Book for that year, at a total cost £7. 8s. 1d.
Susan Stuart, author of ‘Gillows of Lancaster and London’, features the box in a chapter of her book, including a pencil sketch of the Giffard box from Gillow’s Estimate Sketch Book and a ‘Catalogue of the Specimens of Curious Wood’ used for the Giffard box. Adam Bowett wrote a 26 page article for The Regional Furniture Society on the Giffard box: https://regionalfurnituresociety.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/a04-bowett-revised.pdf
We are excited to have discovered the example we offer for sale, honoured to handle such a rare and beautiful piece of Gillows history, and be part of the story!
