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Lot Essay
The present chair is nearly identical to a suite of armchairs commissioned by John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon, for Saltram House, a known Chippendale commission. The design of the chairs, however, shares greater affinities with chairs by John Linnell. The present chair also relates to a set of armchairs and settees made by John Linnell that feature a fluted seat rail centered by a similar stepped central panel draped urn, based on a drawing by Linnell, circa 1768-1770, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1982, p. 110-111. A suite of giltwood armchairs after Linnell's drawing were supplied to George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (d. 1771) for Stansted Park, Sussex, a number of which are at No. 10 Downing Street, London, one being used in the official portrait of the former Prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Of this set, six chairs and a sofa sold from a private collection at Christie’s, New York, 23 October 2010, lots 105-108, and most recently four chairs sold at Christie’s, London, 23 May 2013, lots 181 (£55,875) and 182 (£85,875). A further armchair which is very similar to the present chair is at Temple Newsam House and is illustrated in Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 95, no 84.