Pollard oak and ebony inlaid library table, the rectangular top having inset green tooled leather within repeated bead ebony inlaid border, flanked by rectangular hinged stepped covered compartments, the narrow inverted frieze with central kneehole, having foliate inlaid spandrels with acorn finials, each pedestal with recessed panelled doors (with locks and key), two enclosing four drawers, one enclosing a cupboard space and the other with shelves, raised on plinth bases.

George Bullock’s work is best understood through a group of designs
known as ‘The Wilkinson Tracings’. This collection of designs on tracing paper,
assembled in an album with additional loose inserts and inscribed on the first
page – ‘Tracings by Thomas Wilkinson from designs of the late Mr. George
Bullock, 1820’ – are housed in Birmingham Museums Trust’s collection (1974M3.98) Design for wardrobe, table and stools shows a desk design with the same foliate inlaid spandrel with acorn finials and with decorative circular beads.

George
Bullock (1777/78-1818): was an influential early nineteenth century
cabinet maker, sculptor and marble-mason who had a remarkable career during his
short life. He was trained by his mother, who exhibited wax models at 29, Bull
Street, Birmingham between 1794 and 1798 and, in 1797, ‘Mrs Bullock and Son’
offered modelling and drawing lessons at their premises. Bullock worked in wax,
rice-paste and plaster, and developed a reputation as a noteworthy artist. George’s
brother, William Bullock, was a Museum Promoter in Church Street and had a
notable career as an entrepreneur and showman, opening his first ‘museum’ at
Portugal House in Birmingham in 1800, where he exhibited a variety of
curiosities. He moved his museum to Liverpool in March 1801, and George
followed his brother there, lodging at the premises at 24, Lord Street. In
1804, George Bullock was working in Liverpool: ‘Bullock, George, Modeller and
Sculptor, Lord Street’ (‘Gore’s Directory
for Liverpool and its Environs’, Liverpool, 1804) where he attracted a
number of important patrons for his sculptural work, which he exhibited at the
Royal Academy in London. By 1805 Bullock had entered into a partnership with a
looking-glass maker called William Stoakes, advertising as: ‘Bullock &
Stoakes Cabinet Makers, General Furnishers and Marble Workers 48 Church Street’
(‘Gore’s Directory for Liverpool and its
Environs’, Liverpool, 1805). Their showrooms were named the ‘Grecian
Rooms’, and were housed: ‘at Mr Stokes
Looking Glass Manufactory … this day re-opened where are the most extensive
collection of Bronze and Bronzed Figures … Marble Tables, Chimney Pieces … see
the Rich Gothic Furniture, Armour &c which he has designed and executed for
… Cholmondeley Castle’ (Liverpool
Chronicle, 4 September 1805). This is the first furniture known to have been
designed and made by Bullock. He was renowned for the speed at which he
produced furniture and for the quality of his work, especially his marquetry.

In 1806, Bullock moved to
23 Bold Street and, in 1807, announced that he had dissolved his partnership
with Stoakes. In c.1806 he acquired the Mona marble quarries at Llanvechell,
Anglesey for a lease of £1000, which contained two beds of marble, one resembling:
‘in colour and effect oriental porphyry and the other verd antique’ (‘Repository of Arts’, 1815, p.278). In April 1809,
Bullock wrote to James Watt Senior: ‘my
business has so far exceeded my calculations that I have found great difficulty
in supplying it... I have now called in the aid and assistance of a clever man,
Mr Joseph Gandy, Architect, whose professional abilities and system of
business, will enable me to conduct and accomplish everything I wish in my
undertaking…’ (‘George Bullock: Cabinet-maker’ (John
Murray, H. Blairman & Sons, London, 1988), p.14). The partnership was
called: ‘Bullock, George & Joseph Gandy, architects, modellers, sculptors,
marble masons, cabinet makers and upholsterers 55 Church Street’ (‘Gore’s Directory for Liverpool and its Environs’,
Liverpool, 1810). Clive Wainwright describes Gandy as: ‘a rather impractical and eccentric man’ (Clive
Wainwright, ‘George Bullock and his Circle’ in ‘George Bullock: Cabinet-maker’ (John Murray, H. Blairman &
Sons, London, 1988), p.14) and the firm did not prosper. Following the end of
his partnership with Gandy in 1810, Bullock transferred his business to London
between 1812 and 1814, holding sales of his stock, collections and premises. He
again followed in his brother’s footsteps, as William had left Liverpool in
1810 to open a new museum – ‘Egyptian Hall’ – in Piccadilly. In 1813, he was
first listed in London: ‘Bullock, George, upholsterers, Grecian Rooms, Egyptian
Hall Piccadilly’ (‘Post Office Annual Directory London’, 1813) but then moved
his premises and, by 1815, he was established as: ‘Sculptor, 4 Tenterden
Street, Hanover Square, Mona Marble and Furniture Works, Oxford Street’ (‘Post
Office Annual Directory London’, 1815). Bullock’s work was
classically-inspired, but also incorporated Gothic, Elizabethan and Jacobean
elements. He pioneered the use of native materials in his furniture, using
local larch wood at Blair Castle and Drumlanrig oak at Abbotsford. This use of
native materials and designs gained Bullock a reputation as a patriot, with one
commentator describing him as: ‘in every
respect, an Englishman, and ambitious of his country’s reputation’ (‘Annals of the Fine Arts’, VIII, 1819, p.321-2
quoted in ‘George Bullock: Cabinet-maker’, p.20).
He stayed at these premises until his death in 1818.

In Bullock’s short career
he undertook a number of major furnishing commissions, which included Tew Park
in Oxfordshire (at a cost of £4000); Blair Castle; Cholmondeley Castle; Battle
Abbey in East Sussex; and his clients included Sir Walter Scott and the
manufacturer Matthew Boulton.