A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS, each with oval padded back headed by a spray of roses with serpentine drop-in seat covered in polychrome florally patterned cotton, the padded arms on downswept channelled supports, with fluted frieze and on turned tapering fluted legs headed by flowerheads, restorations, three with repairs to seatrails, one with repairs to back legs, regilt, later blocks (4)

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A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS, each with oval padded back headed by a spray of roses with serpentine drop-in seat covered in polychrome florally patterned cotton, the padded arms on downswept channelled supports, with fluted frieze and on turned tapering fluted legs headed by flowerheads, restorations, three with repairs to seatrails, one with repairs to back legs, regilt, later blocks (4)

Lot Essay

A pair of armchairs of this model were sold anonymously (The Property of a Lady of Title), at Sotheby's London, 28 October 1972

These light-framed armchairs, designed in the Louis XVI 'antique' manner with 'medallion' backs embellished with rose posies, relate to a set of chairs at Syon House (R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, p.290, fig.203). Such 'cabriole chair' patterns were popularised by A. Hepplewhite & Co's, Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, pls. 11 & 11, and the cabinet-maker John Linnell of Berkeley Square supplied related chairs with cane seats for Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire in the late 1780s. However the type had already been fashionable for a decade. (H. Hayward, W & J Linnell, London, 1980, fig.96.

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