IN THE MANNER OF GILES GRENDEY, MID-18TH CENTURY

The ladder-back design of these chairs relate to a set of six walnut side chairs, originally with rush-filled seats, supplied circa 1745 for Newport Church, Essex, by Giles Grendey (d. 1780), the celebrated St John's Square, Clerkenwell cabinetmaker. One of these walnut chairs bears Grendey's shorter trade label (C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, Leeds, 1996, p. 242, fig. 436). A related set of ladder-back chairs was supplied to William Ilbert of Bowringsleigh, Devon by Elizabeth Hutt & Son of St. Paul's Churchyard in 1739, forming a suite with two settees, recorded on the same invoice (S. Jervis, 'A suite of Seat Furniture at Bowringsleigh', Furniture History, Vol. XXIC, 1993, p.38-39). Both sets illustrate that ladder-back chairs originated from sophisticated London cabinet-making firms, as well as regional makers with whom they are often more closely associated.