Featured Early Burr Walnut Davenport Desk by T. Wilson..Royal?

This stunning early davenport desk has a sliding top, it's in wonderful condition. It has 5 matching Bramah locks with the 1799 stamp but unusually they have a Royal crest, I wondered if the desk had been made for the Royal family and they had had the locks personalised, after looking up Bramah lock stamps and even phoning Bramah themselves I am none the wiser, I can't find ones like it, Bramah did say they offered that service but all their records were destroyed in a fire in the 1970's so couldn't confirm it.
Locks aside it's walnut on mahogany, the walnut veneers are matching all over the desk with casters hidden in the carved feet.
The side pen drawer is accessed by removing one of the handles of the dummy drawers inside the slope.

 

nice....very nice !

 

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN. That's beautiful!!

 

Beautiful!

 

nothing but PEA GREEN with ENVY on this end...........................

 

Hi,
I wonder why they did not have an emoji to show ENVY? It is a wonderful wonderful wonderful desk.
greg

 

Lovely, what a prize! That coat-of-arms is the same that Bramah used on their stationary/billing/paperwork.

Scroll a good 1/2 way down the page:
http://www.antiquebox.org/bramah/

Direct link to the paperwork:
http://www.antiquebox.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bramah-prestage-and-ball-02-1400-700x902@2x.jpg

--- Susan

 

Major envy !

 

The prettiest I have ever, EVER seen. Just takes my breath away...

 

Hi Susan, after researching coats of arms I have found the smallest difference can tie them to different families, the coat of arms on the headed paper was given to them by appointment, I wonder what date this was? the crest on my locks differ to the one on the headed paper, mine doesn't have the helmet or the feathers? My locks date to no later than 1798 after that the stamp changed. I'm also finding it hard to find another Bramah lock with the same stamp.

http://www.bramah.co.uk/Chronological History.pdf

 

The lock mark is almost certainly a sign of the Royal Warrent, granted to firms that supplied the Royal household or family, and would appear on all their products. It is certainly not a sign of a royal personal owner.

Nice piece and very little English furniture has a maker's mark.
A drawer that you have to unscrew something to open would be intended as a secret drawer, not a pen drawer.
Having the keys would enhance the value.

 

Found this online:
Artist Biography: Thomas Willson are recorded in the ‘Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840’, published by the Furniture History Society in 1986, as ‘furniture brokers’ over the period from 1799 until1854, when their appearance in trade directories ceases ; the pieces having been sold in the art market, recorded with Willson’s stamp, range in date from c1780-c1840, are invariably of high quality.

http://www.butchoff.com/Thomas-Wils...fault.aspx?tabid=6&tabindex=5&objectid=460093

Can you get a close up of the clearest warrant? The Bramah chronology doesn't mention Royal warrants before 1900.
http://www.bramah.co.uk/Chronological History.pdf

 

This web page has him down as making furniture from 1780-1840 so if we combine the dates with Bramah gives sometime between 1780-1798?
http://www.butchoff.com/Thomas-Wils...fault.aspx?tabid=6&tabindex=5&objectid=460093

 

I do have the keys (2) one maybe a later copy. The Bramah list of stamps I posted doesn't have any locks with a crest, only a crown, Also I can't find another with the same stamp on other antiques.
It is a pen drawer, the handle in the dummy drawer pulls out and that releases the pen drawer and allows it to be pulled out.

 

This is it with the top slid forward

 

No offense (I think it's a beautiful piece) but I'm starting to wonder if those locks aren't fake. That Coat of arms just doesn't look real to me. Granted it's poorly struck, but I don't think it has anywhere near the detail it should, nor ever did have - a very simplified design. Also, so many of them, and poorly placed, when one would be enough. I'm no expert on Bramah locks, but I get the impression that the address is usually part of the stamp - not present here.




Wish I could find a picture of a Bramah lock with a warrant.

 

This isn't the only davenport desk I've seen by T Wilson, they all have Bramah locks, but none of the others (2) I've seen have the crest stamped, I'm quite sure the locks are original, it would be impossible to get 5 matching locks from 1790's. So that just leaves the stamped crests, when I bought this desk I knew nothing of the maker, I knew Bramah locks were only fitted to the best pieces but I knew nothing of the stamps, it was only when researching the date via the locks I found the anomaly of the crest. If they were put there to deceive, it wasn't me they were trying to deceive, don't get me wrong I did pay a lot for it at the time (4 years ago) but that was at the bottom of the market, it's now worth 4x what I paid just as a nice davenport but if a Royal connection can be found it could be 100x what I paid or more. The cost of making a steal stamp would be quite expensive and the stamp is very small to get such detail in, it's less than 1 cm big. I think the combination of 220 years of polish, ware, and being stamped with a hammer as opposed to the "Bramah Patent" being done with a press has taken it's toll. As for the address, from 1784-1797 no address was stamped just the words Bramah Patent, all 5 locks are stamped, the drawers are stamped twice and the slope lock is stamped 3 times.

 

This is a later version but still has Bramah locks http://www.onlinegalleries.com/art-...port-attributed-to-gillows-of-lancaster/49420