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Lot Essay
This stool was originally from an extensive suite of gilt-gesso seat-furniture. Three further stools apparently en suite were sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tritton, Godmersham Park, Kent, Christie's house sale, 6-9 June 1983, lots 21-22; of these, the pair now form part of the Gerstenfeld Collection (E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, no. 55, p. 220 & pl. 52). Another apparently identical stool was sold from the collection of the late Sir Emmanuel Kaye in these Rooms, 29 November 2001, lot 69 (£64,250).
Although tantalisingly no 18th century provenance has as yet been unearthed for this distinguished suite, the unusual upholstery pins to the underside of the rails can also be seen on the Houghton suites of seat-furniture attributed to Thomas Roberts Junior of the 'Royal chair', whilst the superlative quality of the cut-gesso decoration on this suite recalls the seat-furniture probably supplied by the same maker to Glemham Hall, Suffolk circa 1725-30 (see Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2008, p.15, figs. 14-17). A suite of eighteen stools supplied by Henry Williams and Sarah Gilbert for Hampton Court Palace in 1737, which evolved from the Houghton constructional method, display comparable lion's paw feet (ibid., figs. 20-22).
A gilding report undertaken by Catherine Hassall of University College London concluded that this stool has been regilded three times. The original decoration, which survives underneath, was a thick white gesso, followed by a yellow undercoat and then water gilding over a reddish brown clay.
Although tantalisingly no 18th century provenance has as yet been unearthed for this distinguished suite, the unusual upholstery pins to the underside of the rails can also be seen on the Houghton suites of seat-furniture attributed to Thomas Roberts Junior of the 'Royal chair', whilst the superlative quality of the cut-gesso decoration on this suite recalls the seat-furniture probably supplied by the same maker to Glemham Hall, Suffolk circa 1725-30 (see Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2008, p.15, figs. 14-17). A suite of eighteen stools supplied by Henry Williams and Sarah Gilbert for Hampton Court Palace in 1737, which evolved from the Houghton constructional method, display comparable lion's paw feet (ibid., figs. 20-22).
A gilding report undertaken by Catherine Hassall of University College London concluded that this stool has been regilded three times. The original decoration, which survives underneath, was a thick white gesso, followed by a yellow undercoat and then water gilding over a reddish brown clay.