These chairs, with serpentined crest-rails and trellis-fretted feet, relate to patterns for 'French Chairs' in the 'Chinese' manner illustrated by Thomas Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Directors, 1754-63. They formed part of the bedroom furnishings commissioned in 1763 by Edward Leigh, 5^th Lord Leigh (d.1786) for Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire from Messrs. Gomm of Clerkenwell Close. Richard Gomm (d.1794) who subscribed to Chippendale's Director, worked with his father William Gomm, and the firm was recorded as William Gomm and Son and Co. in Mortimer's Universal Director, 1763. The chairs appear to be part of a set invoiced on December 6 1763 as, 6 Mahogy Stuff Back & Seat Chair frames the front feet Neat Chinese Sinking neat Cut Work Bracketts & with Cypher'd Rals @ 25/- ....#7.10s. (Leigh papers deposited at the Shakespeare Birthplace Turst, Stratford upon Avon).
Chippendale illustrated 'French Chairs' with this form of back and straight legs and stretchers in plate XVII (1754), and some related chairs with 'Chinese' fretted backs in plate XXVI (1763), which he described as being 'very proper for a Lady's dressing room, especially if it is hung with India [ie. Chinese] Paper, they may have stuffed seat and brass nails
At the time of the 1981 sale the Gomm invoice for these chairs, with crewel-work loose covers cut from 17th Century hangings, was linked to another related pattern, lot 107