A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN OAK GOTHIC SIDE CHAIRS

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THREE PUGIN SIDE CHAIRS These robust lion-headed oak chairs or "back stools" were first conceived for the New Palace of Westminster in 1846 in the "National" style by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (d.1852), architect, antiquarian and author of Gothic Furniture in the Style of the Fifteenth Century, 1835. Oak leaves festoon their richly imbricated frames, which are flowered with the English rose, a principal badge of the New Palace. The foundation stone of Sir Charles Barry's Palace, which was instigated in the reign of William IV (d.1837), was laid in 1840 and Pugin was entrusted with providing the designs for its furnishings. This Pugin design was first executed for a set of sixteen chairs that accompanied two octagon dining-tables supplied for the Queen Victoria Lobby (now the Prince's Chamber). A pair of gilded mahogany chairs of this pattern served as thrones for the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert and were supplied in 1849. These accompanied Queen Victoria's throne, which was set up in the 'Victoria Lobby', while awaiting the completion of the decoration of the Queen's Robing Room (see I. Ross (ed.), The Houses of Parliament, History, Art, Architecture, London, 2000, p. 188). The "New Palace" pattern was also revived in 1859 and executed by Messrs. Holland & Sons for the dining-room of the Speaker's Residence, and these featured more richly carved stretchers (see P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright, A.W.N. Pugin, Master of Gothic Revival, London, 1995, p. 324, no. 84). They are also illustrated in an 1890s photograph of the Speaker's private library (I. Ross (ed.), op. cit., p. 206). The present pair of leather-upholstered chairs bear laurel-wreathed and Gothic lettered "H" cyphers, which may be for John Harris, who had a Gothic library at his house in Prince's Gate, London, with furniture supplied by John Webb in 1847. A wardrobe from his collection, with a similar 'jh' carved in wood, was supplied by Webb in 1847. There is an inventory of John Harris' collection, which refers to Gothic chairs, with two in red morocco, the rest in green. Harris was a friend of both Pugin and Webb, and had a wide-ranging collection, with just this one room in the Gothic taste. A closely related pair of chairs was sold from the collection of the late Mrs. Vera Hue-Williams, Woolton House, Newbury, Berkshire, 6-7 December 1993, lot 701. These chairs were originally from a set of six; of these, three have been sold to American Museums (The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN OAK GOTHIC SIDE CHAIRS

CIRCA 1848, ATTRIBUTED TO A.W.N. PUGIN

Details

A PAIR OF EARLY VICTORIAN OAK GOTHIC SIDE CHAIRS
CIRCA 1848, ATTRIBUTED TO A.W.N. PUGIN
Each with foliate-carved frame surmounted by lion-heads on X-frame legs joined by foliate and geometrically-carved stretchers and an oak-leaf carved frieze, with brass-nailed leather back and later leather seat, the backs embossed in gold with a flower-head centred by an "H", the front legs on brass caps and castors (2)

Provenance

Possibly supplied to John Harris, Esq., Prince's Gate, London.

Special notice

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