Lot Essay
Popularly described as a 'French Chair' in mid-18th century pattern-books issued by Thomas Chippendale and others, this magnificent chair is conceived in the George II French/antique manner, and sculpted with picturesque golden bas-reliefs to recall the sun-deity Apollo's fusion of the Elements. Its serpentined frame presents a triumphal arched and cupid-bowed cresting that is echoed by the lambrequined rails, whose centres display shell-scalloped cartouches of Roman acanthus flanked by pearled 'paterae' discs; while bubbled cartouches enrich the arm-pillars and the truss-scrolled columnar legs, which terminate in Ionic-waved volutes. Such frames well suited the fashionable floral tapestry seats manufactured by the Soho tapestry-weaver and cabinet-maker William Bradshaw (d.1775), who invoiced related chairs supplied in 1742 for Ditchley, Oxfordshire. In the 1750s his workshop was taken over by George Smith Bradshaw in partnership with Paul Saunders (see J. Cornforth, 'How French style touched the Georgian Drawing Room', Country Life, 6 January 2000, pp. 51-55; and J. Cornforth, Early Georgian Interiors, London, 2004, figs. 393 and 394).
A pair of chairs, almost certainly from the same set, was sold by the late R. W. Miller Esq., Christie's, London, 21 January 1960, lot 43, and subsequently acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.
A pair of chairs, almost certainly from the same set, was sold by the late R. W. Miller Esq., Christie's, London, 21 January 1960, lot 43, and subsequently acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.