Lot Essay
This chair, with its Grecian-tablet back, relates to a pattern by George Bullock (d. 1818) sketched in the Wilkinson Tracings preserved in the Birmingham Art Gallery (C. Wainwright et al., George Bullock, Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, fig. 8). Related chairs were designed in 1816 by George Bullock for Napoleon's residence on St. Helena. The furnishing of New Longwood House by the British Government was finally completed in 1821. An ebonised Napoleonic chair and one of a pair executed in mahogany are illustrated in Wainwright, ibid., pp. 81-82.