News Item: 00046

12th Feb 2008

Gillows bookcase saved for the Nation

Source: http://www.apter-fredericks.com

Apter-Fredericks has announced the sale to Lancashire County Museums of a highly important 18th century bookcase, made by Gillows of Lancaster for a prominent Lancaster citizen Mrs Mary Hutton Rawlinson. It will shortly go on display in the Judges' Lodgings Museum, housed in Lancaster's oldest town house, where the majority of their Gillows Collection of furniture is held. A portrait of Mrs Rawlinson by George Romney also hangs there.

Lancashire County were able to raise the funds to buy this significant piece of furniture which was entered in Gillows' Estimate Book as '…an Elegant Bookcase for Mrs Hutton Rawlinson or her daughter…'. It was delivered in July 1772 at a cost of £21.This bookcase was made of the finest mahogany for the widow of Thomas Hutton Rawlinson, a Quaker ironmaster who amassed a fortune of almost £49,000 as a West Indies merchant trading from the Port of Lancaster.

Susan Stuart writes in her forthcoming book on Gillows furniture: '…the additional delicate tracery is most unusual and like so many features on this magnificent bookcase makes it one of the finest pieces attributed to the Gillow firm.' Sir Nicholas Goodison, President of the Furniture History Society, said: 'We know that, whereas there is a large amount of fine documented furniture by the firm dating from about 1800, important documented pieces from the 18th century, the period when the firm built and established its reputation, are extremely uncommon. I want to underline that the Rawlinson Bookcase shines even in comparison with a piece which would, until its emergence, have been regarded as the summit of Gillows production at this period.'

Apter-Fredericks is delighted to have assisted in ensuring that Lancashire County Museum's campaign to return this superb piece of furniture to its home town of Lancaster has succeeded.

Apter-Fredericks Ltd, 265-267 Fulham Road, London, SW3 6HY.