Lot Essay
The picturesque reed-banded chair-frame, elegantly serpentined with cupid-bow rail and truss-scrolled legs terminating in waved volutes, relates in particular to Robert Manwaring's French Elbow Chair pattern issued in The Chair-Makers Real Friend and Companion,1765 (pl.21). This pattern was adopted for mahogany chairs supplied at this period for Hackwood House, Wiltshire and Tabley House, Cheshire (see a pair of armchairs sold Christies 8 July 1999 lot 59; and H.A. Tipping, Tabley House in English Homes, period VI, vol. I, 1926, p.37). A pair of giltwood armchairs on this pattern were sold Sothebys, London, 17 November 1995 lot 55.