A PAIR OF GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED OPEN ARMCHAIRS
A PAIR OF GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED OPEN ARMCHAIRS

Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED OPEN ARMCHAIRS
Each with pierced back painted in yellow and red and depicting the Prince of Wales' feathers, flanked by outswept arms, above a padded seat covered in pale green floral silk, on square tapering legs, blockfeet, one seat sprung, redecorated, with traces of earlier decoration, losses to decoration (2)

Lot Essay

The feather badge of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, featured in the Prince's 1780s furnishings of his apartments at Buckingham House (now Palace), and was popularised, together with veil-drapery festoons, by chair patterns issued in Messrs A. Hepplewhite and Co's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788.
This Roman shield chair back pattern, with the Prince of Wales' veil-draped badge, is likely to derive from a design by the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813) and corresponds to a sketch for a 'Drapery and feather' chair in Gillow of London and Lancaster's Estimate Sketch Book, of 1788 and in one of the firm's coloured pattern books, (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs, London 1995, fig. 273; and S. Stuart 'Gillows of Lancaster and London', Antiques, June 1999, pl. XIX).
A pair of japanned chairs of the same design, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 16 November 1995, lot 348.

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