Lot Essay
The current lot formed part of the renowned collection assembled by the late Sir Charles Clore (1904 - 1979). Clore was a financier, retail and property magnate and philanthropist; through the Clore Foundation he was a major benefactor to charities and the arts, most notably after his death in the creation of The Clore Gallery at Tate Britain which houses the world's largest collection of works by J.M.W.Turner. Sir Charles Clore's personal collection was dispersed in a series of sales at Christie's including a highly important Collection of Works of Art by Carl Fabergé from the Collection of Sir Charles Clore, Geneva, 13 November 1985, Exceptionelle Collection de Meubles, Porcelaines et Objets d'Art de la Succession de Sir Charles Clore, Monaco, 6 December. This elegant pattern of French cabriolet chair has escutcheon backs in the Roman fashion promoted by the architect James Wyatt (d.1813), and with its antique-flutes and palm-enrichments relates closely to that introduced in 1786 for chairs supplied to Robert Peel by Gillows of London and Lancaster (see S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2 vols. Woodbridge, 2008, pls. 146 and 147).