A GEORGE IV MAHOGANY EXTENDING DINING TABLE ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS OF LANCASTER, CIRCA 1825Conforming to Gillows design of 'Imperial' dining table, with four additional leaf insertions73cm high, 358cm long (when fully extended), 137cm wideIn 1813 Gillows of London and Lancaster supplied a similar 'Set of mahogany Imperial dining tables on stout twined [sic] reeded legs and brass socket casters' for Broughton Hall, Yorkshire at a cost of 50 guineas. Prior to this, Richard Gillow had taken out a patent in 1800 for an extending table, known as the 'Patent Imperial dining-table' (M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev.ed., 1965, p. 64-65, fig. 130).A similar dining-table also attributed to Gillows, was sold by The Lord Brownlow, Belton House, Lincolnshire, Christie's house sale, 30 April-2 May 1984, lot 92. Although no accounts relating to the Brownlow commission appear to have survived, there can be little doubt that much of the furniture at Belton, like this dining-table, was supplied by Gillows.A further closely related dining-table, almost certainly supplied to Peter, 5th Earl Cowper (d. 1836), Panshanger, Hertfordshire, was sold by a descendant, Christie's, London, 7 July 1994, lot 65 and another was sold anonymously, 13 November 1997, lot 133. Two other closely related tables sold Christie's, London, 31 October 2012, lot 113 £34,450 and another The English Collector, 14th Nov 2013 lot 104 £32,500.