A REGENCY BROWN OAK AND HOLLY TILT-TOP CENTRE TABLE, CIRCA 1820, ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE BULLOCK

This wonderful centre table displays several leitmotifs associated with the output of cabinet-maker George Bullock (1777/78-1818). Bullock was one of the most innovative and unconventional British furniture designers of the Regency period and is particularly noted for his distinctive use of marquetry and use of native British materials including woods such as larch, burr & brown oak and Mona Marble from the island of Anglesey in Wales. Born in Birmingham, he was established as a sculptor and cabinetmaker in Liverpool by 1804, where he ran a workshop and retail outlet called the Grecian Rooms, and by 1809 was recorded working in London. He was also an exhibitor at both the Royal and Liverpool Academies.

The designs for the marquetry inlay to top and base of the present table - employing Bullock's ubiquitous stylised honeysuckle and flowerheads - compare favourably to examples recorded in The Wilkinson Tracings (a set of over 200 sheets of designs for furniture and marquetry described on the cover page as "Tracings by Thomas Wilkinson, from the designs of the late Mr George Bullock 1820" and now in the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and reproduced Wainwright et al, George Bullock, Cabinet Maker, London, 1988.