Side-Table designed by Philip Speakman Webb for Morris & Co after 1860. Height: 29 inches; length 65 3/4 inches; width 24 inches. Oak, with turned legs and stretchers, a drawer with brass drop-handles
Designed for a commission undertaken by the Company for Major Gillum, possibly Oakleigh Park, New Barnet (1868). Major Gillum was one of Webb's earliest patrons. W. R. Lethaby, in Philip Webb and his Work (O.U.P. 1935), notes that the list of furniture designed for Major Gillum is: "in a notebook, following the date 26th September 1860, but not necessarily of that exact time."
The inspiration for this piece must be a Japanese altar table, a logical source of inspiration for this date, which saw such exercises in Japonaiserie as the Poynter Grill Room at the South Kensington Museum and Godwin's Japanese style furniture for William Watt & Co.
References
Morris and Company. London: The Fine Art Society, 1979. No. 7.
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Last modified 17 July 2001