Lot Essay
A metamorphic library armchair of this design by Morgan and Sanders is at Trinity College, Oxford and is illustrated in R. Edwards & P. McQuoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Rev. Ed., London, 1954, Vol. II, p.291, Fig. 15. The design was first published in Ackerman's Repository, in July 1811 and captioned 'This ingenious piece of furniture is manufactured at Messrs. Morgan and Sanders's, Catherin-St., Strand' (P.Agius Ackerman's Regency Furniture & Interiors, Marlborough, 1984, fig.29), this chair was 'considered the best and handsomest article ever yet invented, where two complete pieces of furniture are combined in one-as an elegant and truly comfortable armchair and a set of library steps'.
This library armchair bears the stamp of B.Harmer a cabinet-maker whose address is unrecorded. However, an early 19th Century library reading chair is in the Collections of the Ipswich Museums and Art Galleries at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich (L.1941-125) is recorded as bearing his stamp
(See: C. Gilbert and G. Beard, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Furniture History Society, 1986, p. 399)
This library armchair bears the stamp of B.Harmer a cabinet-maker whose address is unrecorded. However, an early 19th Century library reading chair is in the Collections of the Ipswich Museums and Art Galleries at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich (L.1941-125) is recorded as bearing his stamp
(See: C. Gilbert and G. Beard, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Furniture History Society, 1986, p. 399)