CIRCA 1830, ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN TAYLOR

Conceived in the antique manner of a Grecian kline or Roman triclinium intended for a room-of-entertainment, this couch has lyre-scrolled ends, whose chimerical palm-wreathed griffin monopodia evoke Apollo as Mt. Parnassus poetry deity. The Covent Garden cabinet-maker and upholsterer John Taylor, who had trained at the New Bond Street firm of George Oakley and provided patterns to R. Ackermann's, Repository of Arts, in the early 1820s, later included the pattern for this couch in his General Book of Reference for Chairs, Sofas, Couches, Easy Chairs etc., 1850. It is thought that the design of this couch originally dates from the 1820s.