After
a design by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
(1812-52)
The
manufacture attributed to Gillow & Company
(circa
1730-1897)
Oak,
with iron castors
49
in (124.5 cm) x 473/4 in (121 cm) x 831/4 in (211 cm)
English
(Lancaster), circa 1854
MARKED:
Deus
meus / Deus te / vigilante / requiem (carved in four bands at top of
headboard).
PROVENANCE:
Probably
New Palace Westminster; [ ... ].
Gillow
and Company was the principal, but not exclusive manufacturer of Pugin-designed
furniture supplied for the new Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). A
drawing corresponding closely with the present bed and an estimate, dated 17
June 1854, are in a Gillows Estimate Sketch Book (City of Westminster
Archive Centre: 344/105, no. 5956). Described as An Oak French Bedstead, the
total cost of the estimate was 18 19s 6d, including 3 6s
for Carving inscription rail. A note on the drawing specifies that the
headboard was to have a drapery panel outside, as on the present bed, . In the
same Estimate Sketch Book number 5955 is for a 56 bed, number 5957 for a
36 bed and number 5958 for a 29 bed, the last supplied for Sergeant at Arms
Residence NPW.
A
recent survey of the Pugin furniture at the Palace of Westminster found only
two surviving beds of the same model as the present example (POW 4377 and POW
206); the beds at Westminster can be dated, according to internal records,
1851-54.
It
is clear from the estimated sketches that Gillows supplied Pugin-inspired
furniture to numerous customers throughout the 1850s and 60s, and indeed into
the 70s. By that time, however, the firm was enthusiastically promoting the
Modern Gothic designs of Bruce Talbert and Charles Bevan, introduced in the
late 1860s. It seems likely that the furniture manufactured during the early
1850s, and designated in the sketch books NPW was supplied for the Parliament
buildings. Although some furniture conceived for Westminster appears to have
been supplied elsewhere, future research might show that furniture supplied to
other customers may have been more commonly described as NPW style. Several
individuals appear to have had a particular liking for Gillows Puginesque
furniture; these include George Fenwick (late 1850s), Sir James Ramsden and Sir
Stuart Donaldson ( both mid 1860s).
An
1849 design by Pugin for a single bed of related form is in the collection of
the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.1580-1912); see Alexandra Wedgwood, A.W.N.
Pugin and the Pugin Family, London, 1985, pp. 249-50.
