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Lot Essay
These chairs, remarkable for their scale, were most probably supplied around 1740 to Humphrey Sturt (d.1786), or possibly his father, for Horton, Dorset, before being removed to Crichel where they were recorded in the East Hall in an inventory of 1866.
Sturt's father, also Humphrey, died in 1740 and his son inherited the estate at Horton. He trained and practised as an architect building the six storey folly Horton Tower in 1750, reputedly as a lookout from which he could follow the local hunt, and he was returned five times as M.P for Dorset between 1745 and 1786. His rapid rise as Lord of Horton Manor and M.P would likely have been accompanied by lavish refurbishment at his country seat.
The manor house at Horton was acquired by the Sturt family in 1718, but Sir Humphrey appears to have sold a lease on the house on 11 August 1762, and when he inherited the more substantial property at Crichel in 1765 from Sir Gerard Napier, 6th Baronet, he made a permanent move to the larger house, spending a significant portion of his wealth on refurbishments of Crichel, and leaving Horton to neglect. It is almost certain that the chairs and companion sofas (offered here as lot 35), important family heirlooms, were moved to Crichel at this time.
The suite was among the furnishings in the East Hall, where they were listed in An Inventory of the Household Furniture, Plate and Plated Ware Linen, China and Glass, Books, Pictures & Prints, Wines and Liqueurs, Horses, Carriages, Harness and other Effects on the Premises Critchill House, Critchill, Dorset, by Rushworth, Jarvis & Abbott, May 1866, after the death of Henry Charles Sturt. It is described thus:
8 massive Fauteuils with carved gilt legs covered in Utrecht velvet
Two sofa's to match
THE DESIGN AND RELATED SEAT-FURNITURE
The basic form of the chairs corresponds to large armchairs or library chairs that were widespread after 1735, among which one notable example is a mahogany, beechwood and parcel gilt chair attributed to Benjamin Goodison at Longford Castle, Wiltshire (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p.185, pl. 4.84).
The leg design with scrolled eagle head and gadrooned cuff evolved from an earlier pattern of circa 1720 such as that displayed on a stool illustrated in The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture & Clocks, York Civic Trust, 1987, p.48, no.48, and the same leg features on a chair illustrated in M. Jourdain, English Furniture and Decoration of the later XVIth - XIXth Centuries, New York and London, fig. 188. Another variation was a stool formerly in the Fred Skull Collection, sold Christie's, London, 23 April 1952, lot 202 (£141.15s), and again from E.S.F.Chance, Esq., Christie's, London, 20 May 1971, lot 78 (£550); the almost identical leg pattern featured a scallop shell laid over acanthus and extended to a hip with the same gadrooned cuff, differing only in being carved with heads of hounds rather than eagles.
Another related pattern is that of a sofa of circa 1735 - 40, executed in walnut and later gilded, illustrated in Lucy Wood, The Uplholstered Furniture in The Lady Lever Art Gallery, New Haven and London, 2008, vol. II, p.320, no. 28. This features the same cuff though the cabriole leg is headed by naive Indian masks (the arms however do terminate in eagle heads) and is reasonably attributed to an unknown but undoubtedly provincial maker.
Wood also draws a parallel with the suite at Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire, probably commissioned around 1720 by James, 5th Duke of Hamilton (d. 1743), and it is in this suite that we find perhaps the greatest similarity with the present chairs. The Hamilton Suite was notable for including 'some half-dozen settees and three times that number of chairs ... a shell on the knee and below that a band of nulling' (H. Avray Tipping, 'Hamilton Palace II - Lanarkshire', Country Life, 14 June 1919, p.721. In addition the legs were similarly squared in section as in the present lot. A pair of side chairs from the suite was sold anonymously Christie's New York, 17 May 2012, lot 108 ($31,250 including premium).
Sturt's father, also Humphrey, died in 1740 and his son inherited the estate at Horton. He trained and practised as an architect building the six storey folly Horton Tower in 1750, reputedly as a lookout from which he could follow the local hunt, and he was returned five times as M.P for Dorset between 1745 and 1786. His rapid rise as Lord of Horton Manor and M.P would likely have been accompanied by lavish refurbishment at his country seat.
The manor house at Horton was acquired by the Sturt family in 1718, but Sir Humphrey appears to have sold a lease on the house on 11 August 1762, and when he inherited the more substantial property at Crichel in 1765 from Sir Gerard Napier, 6th Baronet, he made a permanent move to the larger house, spending a significant portion of his wealth on refurbishments of Crichel, and leaving Horton to neglect. It is almost certain that the chairs and companion sofas (offered here as lot 35), important family heirlooms, were moved to Crichel at this time.
The suite was among the furnishings in the East Hall, where they were listed in An Inventory of the Household Furniture, Plate and Plated Ware Linen, China and Glass, Books, Pictures & Prints, Wines and Liqueurs, Horses, Carriages, Harness and other Effects on the Premises Critchill House, Critchill, Dorset, by Rushworth, Jarvis & Abbott, May 1866, after the death of Henry Charles Sturt. It is described thus:
8 massive Fauteuils with carved gilt legs covered in Utrecht velvet
Two sofa's to match
THE DESIGN AND RELATED SEAT-FURNITURE
The basic form of the chairs corresponds to large armchairs or library chairs that were widespread after 1735, among which one notable example is a mahogany, beechwood and parcel gilt chair attributed to Benjamin Goodison at Longford Castle, Wiltshire (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p.185, pl. 4.84).
The leg design with scrolled eagle head and gadrooned cuff evolved from an earlier pattern of circa 1720 such as that displayed on a stool illustrated in The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture & Clocks, York Civic Trust, 1987, p.48, no.48, and the same leg features on a chair illustrated in M. Jourdain, English Furniture and Decoration of the later XVIth - XIXth Centuries, New York and London, fig. 188. Another variation was a stool formerly in the Fred Skull Collection, sold Christie's, London, 23 April 1952, lot 202 (£141.15s), and again from E.S.F.Chance, Esq., Christie's, London, 20 May 1971, lot 78 (£550); the almost identical leg pattern featured a scallop shell laid over acanthus and extended to a hip with the same gadrooned cuff, differing only in being carved with heads of hounds rather than eagles.
Another related pattern is that of a sofa of circa 1735 - 40, executed in walnut and later gilded, illustrated in Lucy Wood, The Uplholstered Furniture in The Lady Lever Art Gallery, New Haven and London, 2008, vol. II, p.320, no. 28. This features the same cuff though the cabriole leg is headed by naive Indian masks (the arms however do terminate in eagle heads) and is reasonably attributed to an unknown but undoubtedly provincial maker.
Wood also draws a parallel with the suite at Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire, probably commissioned around 1720 by James, 5th Duke of Hamilton (d. 1743), and it is in this suite that we find perhaps the greatest similarity with the present chairs. The Hamilton Suite was notable for including 'some half-dozen settees and three times that number of chairs ... a shell on the knee and below that a band of nulling' (H. Avray Tipping, 'Hamilton Palace II - Lanarkshire', Country Life, 14 June 1919, p.721. In addition the legs were similarly squared in section as in the present lot. A pair of side chairs from the suite was sold anonymously Christie's New York, 17 May 2012, lot 108 ($31,250 including premium).