Lyon & Turnbull
Lot 35
E. W. GODWIN (1833-1886), PROBABLY FOR GILLOW & CO. AESTHETIC MOVEMENT ‘COFFEE TABLE’, CIRCA 1880ebonised birch with incised and gilded decoration(48cm long, 69.5cm high, 37.5cm deep)Footnote: Literature: Soros, Susan The Secular Furniture of E. W. Godwin, Yale 1999, pp. 29, 155, 267, pl.220 William Watt (Firm); Watt, William, Godwin E.W., et al Art Furniture designed by Edward W, Godwin F.S.A. and manufactured by William Watt, B.T. Batsford, London, 1877, plate 8 where the design for the present lot a 'Coffee Table', is illustrated. Note: Godwin's ideas for furniture were ‘so accurately rendered that they were easily translated into actual designs to be put into production by the many well-established cabinetmakers that flourished in Britain during the 19th century’. Godwin contended that “Cabinetmakers always prefer architects to design for them when they can get them” and this is borne out by the numbers of firms which used his designs including Collinson & Lock, Cox & Son W.A.&S. Smee, William Watt, Gillow & Co. and others. Godwin’s design for the current lot, the maker attributed to Gillow & Co., appears marked ‘Coffee Table’ in an interior setting in one of his line drawing in William Watt’s Art Furniture designed by Edward W, Godwin F.S.A. and manufactured by William Watt of 1877. The quality of construction and refined details such as the incised gilding suggests the superior cabinet-making skills of a firm like Gillows. This example also equates to other marked examples of Godwin’s more familiar square-topped coffee table by Gillows, which bear similar gilded embellishments.
