POSSIBLY BY GILLOW, MID-19TH CENTURY

Designed in the George IV 'Old English' style, these library chairs derive from a George II chair at Boyton House, Wiltshire (see P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1927, vol.I, p.237, fig.91). This pattern chair was revived in the early part of the nineteenth century and while executed in a variety of woods - including mahogany, walnut, yew and elm - yew-tree versions were manufactured by Messrs.Gillow and are listed in the Estimate Sketch Book of 1827 (see Gillow Archives, Westminster Library, E.S. 3603). The Gillows pattern was executed by Robert Lawson for for sale by Ferguson & Co., London. A similar pair of chairs made in yewwood and stamped by Gillow was sold in these Rooms, 22 April 1989, lot 69. Others executed in mahogany, often with plum-pudding figuring to the backs, were sold: a pair, anonymously in these Rooms, 12 October 1991, lot 47 ($19,800); a single, in these Rooms, the Estate of Sydney R. Newman, 12 October 1996, lot 250 ($14,300); a single sold Sotheby's New York, 3-4 June 1988, lot 420 ($12,100); and a pair sold Sotheby's London, 18 November 1988, lot 3234 (£11,000).