CIRCA 1740

These chairs with gilt-highlighted carved details would have been commissioned in the 1740's for a fashionable palladian dining-room or saloon. Sadly, their history cannot be traced. It is remarkable that the chairs retain some of their original stippled oil-gilt surface to their ball feet, a rare feature that also appears on various suites of seating furniture supplied for Sir Robert Walpole at Houghton Hall, Norfolk (see R.Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev.edn., London, 1954, vol.I, pp.60-61, figs.43-44 and p.266, fig.166). Examples from the Houghton suites were sold in 'Houghton', Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lots 130 ('the Eagle suite') and 131 ('the Saytr-mask suite'). The oak leaf-carved knee is an uncommon feature which also appears on a suite from the Irwin Untermyer collection, illustrated in Y.Hackenbroch, ed., English Furniture with some furniture of other countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953, pl.97, fig.124. Another armchair featuring this carving is illustrated in F.L.Hinckley, The More Significant Georgian Furniture, New York, 1990, fig.16.