A MAHOGANY dressing table commissioned for the Lake District home of the renowned social reformer John Christian Curwen is to be auctioned.

The late 18th Century gentleman’s piece, made by celebrated Lancaster furniture maker Gillows, is valued at between £800 and £1,200. It goes under the hammer at Addisons’s spring sale in Barnard Castle on March 8.

Curwen, who was MP for Cumberland, campaigned for the abolition of slavery, Corn Law repeal and Catholic emancipation. He owned Belle Isle on Windermere and Workington Manor.