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Lot Essay
This pair of hall armchairs relates very closely to a chair illustrated in Michael Harding-Hill, Windsor Chairs, London, 2003, p. 76, and to another similar chair exhibited by Witney Antiques at the 1997 Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair. Although these chairs share similar constructional characteristics with provincial Windsor chairs, including turned spindles and solid seats, Windsor chairs are associated with more rural areas, such as the Thames valley, where they would have commonly been fashioned from timbers such as ash, yew and elm. The use of finest mahogany for these grand chairs, coupled with the high quality of construction, suggests that these chairs were likely made by a major London cabinetmaker of the period.
These chairs are similar to a group of armchairs with vase-capped baluster splats which probably formed part of a larger set, one from the Collection of Professor Sir Albert Richardson, P.R.A., sold Christie’s London 18-19 September, lot 31 (£32,500) and another sold Christie's London, 22 April 2004, lot 29 (£45,410). These chairs are based on the designs of the Windsor chair and are related to a 1750s pattern executed by Richard Hewett at Slough, (see N. Goyne Evans, 'A History and Background of English Windsor Furniture', Furniture History, 1979, pp. 24-53, pl. 84), although he is unlikely their enigmatic maker. A closely related set of fine mahogany armchairs, conceivably by the same maker, line the marble hall at Holkham Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Earls of Leicester. A further pair of related George II mahogany armchairs was sold, Sotheby's New York, 11 & 12 April 1997, lot 751 ($46,000).
These chairs are similar to a group of armchairs with vase-capped baluster splats which probably formed part of a larger set, one from the Collection of Professor Sir Albert Richardson, P.R.A., sold Christie’s London 18-19 September, lot 31 (£32,500) and another sold Christie's London, 22 April 2004, lot 29 (£45,410). These chairs are based on the designs of the Windsor chair and are related to a 1750s pattern executed by Richard Hewett at Slough, (see N. Goyne Evans, 'A History and Background of English Windsor Furniture', Furniture History, 1979, pp. 24-53, pl. 84), although he is unlikely their enigmatic maker. A closely related set of fine mahogany armchairs, conceivably by the same maker, line the marble hall at Holkham Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Earls of Leicester. A further pair of related George II mahogany armchairs was sold, Sotheby's New York, 11 & 12 April 1997, lot 751 ($46,000).