MID-18TH CENTURY

This pair of chairs have scrolled eagle head terminals to the arms characteristic of Irish chairs of the mid-eighteenth century (see The Knight of Glin & J. Peill, Irish Furniture, New Haven & London, 2007, p. 107, fig. 136). The pierced splats relate to those on a triple-chairback settee in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, illustrated, ibid., p. 209, cat. no. 18. The tassels in the splat are another feature associated with Irish chairs, and are seen on the set of twenty-four mahogany dining-chairs of c. 1770 supplied to Thomas and Louisa Connolly for Castletown, Co. Kildare (ibid., p. 122, fig. 166).
A pair of dining-chairs of similar design were sold from the collection of Dr. Frank Crozer Knowles, Christie's New York, 22 October 1988, lot 236.