ATTRIBUTED TO MOREL AND SEDDON

The palm-flowered chair, with Grecian-scrolled cresting, formed part of the seat furniture commissioned by George IV as part of the aggrandisement of his Drawing-Room apartments in the East Wing of Windsor Castle, carried out during the second half of the 1820s. The chair was designed to harmonise with the Grecian/French architecture introduced by the architect Jeffry Wyatt, later Sir Jeffry Wyatville (d. 1840), and formed part of the furnishing contract carried out by Nicholas Morel, who received the appointment as the King's 'Upholsterer in Ordinary' in 1826. He was assisted by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter (d. 1841), 'Ebeniste du Garde-meuble de la Couronne' to Charles X, and the furniture was executed at the Aldersgate Street workshops of George Seddon, with whom he had entered into partnership. Miniature designs of this furniture were submitted to the King in 1826, and a Committee of Lords of the Treasury sanctioned the furnishings of the rooms, which were first occupied in December 1828. An 1826 design for the chair survives together with its en suite sofa and armchair; and they also appear in wall elevations of the Great and Small Drawing-Rooms (G. de Bellaigue and P. Kirkham, 'George IV and the Furnishing of Windsor Castle', Furniture History, 1972, pls. 16A, 16B and14B; see also forthcoming publication H. Roberts, For the King's Pleasure: The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's Apartments at Windsor Castle, 2001).

The suite was designed with scrolled and paw-footed front legs, while the baluster legs of the present chair relate instead to those of a suite of seat furniture supplied for George IV's Sitting-Room and upholstered by Morel with 18th century Beauvais tapestry. The latter suite was augmented by Messrs Waring around 1904, so it is possible that this chair was altered at that period (Guy Francis Laking, The Furniture of Windsor Castle, London, 1905, p. 162). The chair bears an 1866 Windsor Castle inventory brand.