A SET OF SIX GEORGE III MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS

CIRCA 1760

Details

A SET OF SIX GEORGE III MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS
Circa 1760
Each slightly serpentine crestrail above a pierced splat carved with scrolls and centering a quatrefoil above a padded seat covered in close-nailed dark green velvet, over an arched foliate-carved seatrail, on similarly-carved cabriole legs and foliate toupie feet (6)

Provenance

Possibly acquired by J.S.Sykes, Esq. under the direction of R.W.Symonds.
Thence by descent to Mrs. C.A.Joll.
With Phillips of Hitchin, Ltd., Hertfordshire

Literature

M.Jourdain and F.Rose, English Furniture: The Georgian Period (1750-1830), London, 1953, p.73, fig.33.
A.Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl.168.

Lot Essay

These chairs were almost certainly part of the collection carefully formed by Joseph Sassoon Sykes. J.S.Sykes was one of a select group of connoisseurs advised by the great furniture historian R.W.Symonds. His remarkable collection is discussed in a series of articles published by Symonds including 'Eighteenth Century Mahogany Furniture, illustrated with examples from the collection of Mr. J.S.Sykes', Apollo, August 1937, pp.68-73. A selection of furniture and objects belonging to a descendent of Sykes was sold by Christie's London, 16 November 1995, lots 300-310. Other noted collectors advised by Symonds include Percival C.Griffiths, Fred Skull, Samuel Messer and Eric Moller. Indeed, Sykes himself, who was buying in the late 1930's, was able to acquired a number of pieces from the Griffiths collection.

The chair's back and splat is based directly on a design published in Thomas Chippendale's Director of 1762, pl.X, while the shaped seat rail and foliate-carved leg and foot relates to plate XII.