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Lot Essay
Sporting dolphins first feature in G. Brunetti's Ornaments, 1736, while the dolphin-footed chair, as published in de la Cour's First Book of Ornaments, 1741, was adapted to a 'French chair' pattern, published in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, pl.XX (pl.XXI in the 1762 edition). Chippendale further uses the dolphin motif in designs for candlestands (pl.CXLV), cisterns (pl.CLI) and pedestals (CLI).
The dolphin foot appears on many examples of seating furniture including a suite comprising six chairs and a pair of stools of circa 1755, of which one chair and a stool are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (see D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, 1969, pl. 54, fig.57A), and a further pair is in the Jon Gerstenfeld collection, Washington, D.C. (see E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 214, no. 46). Another similar pair of armchairs from the collection of Lady Baillie at Leeds Castle was sold by Samuel Messer, Christie's London, 5 December 1991, lot 74.
The dolphin foot appears on many examples of seating furniture including a suite comprising six chairs and a pair of stools of circa 1755, of which one chair and a stool are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (see D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, 1969, pl. 54, fig.57A), and a further pair is in the Jon Gerstenfeld collection, Washington, D.C. (see E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 214, no. 46). Another similar pair of armchairs from the collection of Lady Baillie at Leeds Castle was sold by Samuel Messer, Christie's London, 5 December 1991, lot 74.