Made from oak, larch and ebony, each fitted with a long frieze drawer and a pair of panel doors, all with key escutcheons, with ebony mouldings and marquetry patterns in the Greek Revival style, comprising stylised flower heads, anthemions and palmettes, the door panels with roundels to each corner; the interior with a shelf, raised on bracket feet and integrated plinth bases. With replaced Verde Genovese marble tops.

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. The designs for the marquetry patterns on this pair of cabinets are amongst the Tracings. The pattern for the doors was originally for inlaid decoration for Mrs Barron's Oak Book Commode and the design for the frieze is from a sheet illustrating six designs for inlaid decoration. The form of the cabinets is included on a sheet of three of Bullock’s designs for cabinets.

Thomas Wilkinson’s connection to Bullock is unclear, but they may have worked together, which would explain his access to the original designs. The popularity of Bullock’s designs meant that his work was widely imitated and it is possible that the tracings were used for this purpose.

There are a number of extant pieces of furniture by or attributable to Bullock which are decorated with the same marquetry designs as this pair of cabinets. Most notable comparators for the designs to the door panels are housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A comparable, but slightly less elaborate single cabinet was invoiced by Bullock in 1817 to Matthew Robinson Boulton at Tew Park, Oxfordshire. It was described as 'An Oak Cabinet richly inlaid with Holly in pannels [sic] of Doors &c. & white mouldings £25' and 'Mona green marble Top for D 4.7 @ 20/- £4 11s 8d'. The Tew cabinet, which was surmounted by a pier glass, is in a private collection (Christie's, Great Tew Park, 27-29 May 1987, lot 35). An undocumented cabinet, lacking the lower plinth, has the same decoration on the doors and drawer, in contra-partie (Paris Art Market, 1985). Another example of the contra-partie version in brass on an ebony ground is on a cabinet in an American private collection (Helena Hayward, ed., World Furniture (London, 1979, fig. 768).

The form of plinth on these cabinets is unusual when compared to others by Bullock, and the plinth bases do not appear on the design in the Wilkinson Tracings. Collard illustrates another cabinet by Bullock with comparable bracket feet and plinth base (Frances Collard ‘Regency Furniture’, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1985, p. 112).

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; Cholmondely Castle; Battle Abbey in East Sussex; and his clients included Sir Walter Scott and the manufacturer Matthew Boulton. For further information about Bullock's life see https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/bullock-george-1777-1818