George III Mahogany Rent Table attributed to Gillows of Lancaster

ENGLISH, CIRCA 1780

The gilt tooled circular red leather quartered top within a cross-banded and moulded edge, centred by circular removable lid with original engraved lock with lifting keyhole cover, revealing a mahogany lined compartment, above an arrangement of single and double frieze drawers individually numbered on ivory insets above original brass swan-neck handles, the rotating top on square cupboard base, paneled on all sides with a door revealing a shelved compartment, the whole raised on shaped bracket feet concealing castors.

29½in; 75cm high
40in; 102cm diameter

The "rent" table, as the name suggests, would be used at a large country estate for the management of the rent colllection from the estate tenants. The numbered drawers around the rotating frieze were also sometimes marked with letters of the alphabet and would be used to order the paperwork and ledgers while the secure locked compartment in the centre of the table top provided safe storage for the monies paid.

Literature:

cf. Lindsay Boynton (ed.), Gillow's Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995 fig. 28 for Gillows' design for a very similar rent table dated 1792