Library steps
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1850
Materials
Mahogany, textile, iron locking bar, rope ties
Measurements
170 cm (Height) x 84 cm (Depth)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
NT 428609
Summary
A set of six-tread mahogany library steps, English, circa 1850. Each step with red carpet tread, the top with turned hand pole and ball finial, with iron locking bar below bottom step, also two rope ties, stamped GILLOWS 132 on the rear support.
Full description
By the end of the 18th century the Lancaster firm of Gillow had a London shop and were one of the leading cabinet-makers in Britain. In 1813 the third generation of the Gillow family sold the businesses in London and Lancaster. As Gillow & Co. the firm continued to flourish and to export furniture across the world right through the Victorian period, including the important commission to make furniture for the New Palace of Westminster, until 1897 when it became Waring & Gillow Ltd.
Provenance
Visible in an 1881 photograph of The Drawing Room when it was the Disraelis' library.
Marks and inscriptions
On top stretcher of rear support: GILLOWS 132