Lot Essay
This elegant George III form of French 'cabriolet' chair was introduced in the 1770s by the architect James Wyatt (d.1813); while a related chair, with Apollonian sunflowered tablets and palm-flowered capitals, features in the 1786 Sketch Book of Gillows of London and Lancaster. A set of four armchairs of the present pattern and with beribboned reeds wreathing the backs, was formerly in the collection of Winnafred, Countess of Portarlington (sold Christie's London, 27 November 1975, lot 84). The pencilled inscription 'R.GILLOW' has also been recorded on a chair of this pattern but with fluted back legs (see Christie's New York, 22 April 1999, lot 76). The present chairs bear the New Bond Street label of Messrs Alfred Thomas Wright and George Needham Mansfield, who were manufacturing 'Adams' style furniture in the 1860s, and were exhibitors of 'Adam' and 'Sheraton' furniture at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.