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Lot Essay
The chairs are embellished with Venus shells and Roman acanthus while their pilasters with their architectural truss-scrolled capitals reflect the fashion adopted around 1720 for India [Chinese] vase-backed parlour chairs, such as that illustrated on the trade-sheet of the St. Paul's Church Yard cabinet-maker Thomas Cleare . Their bacchic satyr or goat hoofed feet correspond to the Louis Quatorze Roman fashion popularised by A-C. Boulle's Nouveaux Deisseins de Meubles (c.1708-15). Hooves were adopted at this period for India back chairs supplied by the court joiner Richard Roberts (d.1733) (A. Bowett, 'The India-Backed Chairs 1715-40', Apollo, January, 2003, pp. 3-9, fig. 9).
The chairs appear to be en suite with a stool, sold The Property of a Gentleman, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 42. The stool had been purchased by the then owner's uncle from Mallett on 13 November 1933 and had previously been exhibited at Christie's, London, 1932, British Antique Dealer's Association, Art Treasures Exhibition, no. 109.
The chairs appear to be en suite with a stool, sold The Property of a Gentleman, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 42. The stool had been purchased by the then owner's uncle from Mallett on 13 November 1933 and had previously been exhibited at Christie's, London, 1932, British Antique Dealer's Association, Art Treasures Exhibition, no. 109.