Lot Essay
The design of these evolves from that of a lighter gothic example by Bullock published by Ackermann in September 1817 (also in the Wilkinson Tracings), through George Bullock's State chair for Battle Abbey (see: George Bullock, Cabinet-Maker, Blairmans and Sudley Art Gallery, exh. cat., 1988, no. 56 and 13 respectively) to the work of A. C. Pugin and A. W. N. Pugin.
An identical chair is illustrated in J. Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors, London, 1987, fig. 61, as being from Battle Abbey, where Bullock and Bridgens worked in collaboration. However the integral casters on these chairs have registry marks for 1877 suggest either that it was a model that continued, as was the case for much of Pugin's furniture at the Palace of Westminster, or was merely an old set dating from the 1820's that was enlarged in the 1870's. It is perhaps pertinent to note that one of these chairs is marked with the number XVII
An identical chair is illustrated in J. Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and Interiors, London, 1987, fig. 61, as being from Battle Abbey, where Bullock and Bridgens worked in collaboration. However the integral casters on these chairs have registry marks for 1877 suggest either that it was a model that continued, as was the case for much of Pugin's furniture at the Palace of Westminster, or was merely an old set dating from the 1820's that was enlarged in the 1870's. It is perhaps pertinent to note that one of these chairs is marked with the number XVII