CIRCA 1835, PROBABLY IRISH

These comfortable chairs reflect the robust early 19th Century French/Grecian fashion with Ionic-scrolled tablet rails and 'Pan' reeded and urn-capped columnar legs. They typify the George IV fashion, driven by the Wyatt dynasty of architects through cabinet-makers and upholsters such as Messrs. Gillows of London and Lancaster. The back's Grecian-scrolled uprights feature on a pattern for an 'elegant antique' or 'Roman' chair pattern with accompanying 'Grecian footstool' in R. Ackermann's 1810 Repository of the Arts. They were considered appropriate for a variety of rooms and were intended to be executed in mahogany, or else japanned and gilded en suite with the other furniture.

A very similar set of eight chairs sold from the Collection of the Marquis and Marquise de Ravenel, Christie's London, 21 & 22 November 2007, lot 44, for £16,000.