Details
A GEORGE I WALNUT AND MARQUETRY WING ARMCHAIR
CIRCA 1715
The arched padded back, scrolled sides, arms and squab cushion covered in floral needlework, the seatrail with central drop cartouche inlaid with the Bowes coat-of-arms, on hipped square legs and braganza feet, restorations to legs, the needlework apparently original and with restorations
48 ½ in. (123 cm.) high; 28 in. (71 cm.) wide; 30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) deep
Provenance
Commissioned by Elizabeth, Lady Bowes (née Blakeston of Gibside Manor), widow of Sir William Bowes (d. 1706) for Streatlam Castle, County Durham.
By descent at Streatlam Castle with the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne and likely sold by the Countess of Strathmore in the 1920s.
With Phillips of Hitchin (Antiques) Ltd., Hertfordshire, circa 1962.
The Trustees of the S.T. Cook Will Trust; sold Sotheby’s, New York, 16 October 1993, lot 308.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 14-15 June 2016, lot 388.
Literature
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1924, vol. I, p. 223, fig. 60 (almost certainly the same chair with loose covering over the needlework; shown with a side chair from the set).
M. Wills and H. Coutts, ‘The Bowes Family of Streatlam Castle and Gibside and Its Collections’, Metropolitan Museum Journal, no. 33, 1998, p. 235, fig. 7.
A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2009, p. 155, fig. 4:20.
Exhibited
London, Victoria and Albert Museum, C.I.N.O.A. International Art Treasures Exhibition, 1962, no. 95, pl. 68 (with Phillips of Hitchin).
Special notice
This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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Lot Essay

The chair is part of a larger set displaying the coat-of-arms of Sir William Bowes (d. 1706), ancestor to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Consort of King George VI. The set was commissioned by Elizabeth, Lady Bowes who as a widow was allowed to bear her late husband’s arms within a lozenge. Thus the set dates between 1706, the year of Sir William’s death, and 1718, when their eldest son came of age. Two matching side chairs covered in the same needlework were sold by a Gentleman, Formerly in the Collection of Colonel Norman Colville M.C.; Christie’s, London, 14 June 2001, lot 66 (£64,250). One of these is illustrated in D. Nickerson, English Furniture, 1963, p. 6, fig. 1. A third side chair is illustrated in the 1924 Dictionary of English Furniture photograph with the present wing chair (Macquiod & Edwards, loc. cit.).

The distinctive profile of the hipped or 'broken' leg was a feature of James Moore’s work at Blenheim Castle for the 1st Duke of Marlborough (A. Bowett, op. cit., p. 154, pl. 4:18), while the leg design closely relates to a set of japanned bedroom chairs thought to have been supplied by John Belchier in circa 1720 for Erddig, North Wales (R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. I, p. 261, fig. 106). The aggrandisement of Streatlam Castle, Co. Durham, was carried out with the assistance of the architect Thomas Shirley and under the direction of Elizabeth’s son from 1717-1722. Heraldry was a notable feature of other Bowes commissions: to celebrate the Bowes-Blakeston marriage in 1693, the state bedroom was furnished with an impressive Anglo-Dutch floral clothes cabinet inlaid with the arms of both families. The piece, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is discussed in Wills and Coutts, op. cit, pp. 231-232, fig. 3. There is also a card-table bearing the Bowes crest (Edwards, op. cit., vol. III, p. 242, fig. 4). It has been suggested that all of this inlaid furniture was also supplied by Belchier, who may have been of Huguenot origin and specialised in all sorts of 'Cabinet Works' and 'Chairs'. A set of four early Georgian giltwood mirrors (circa 1720-40), which post-date the suite are also emblazoned with the family arms. One of these was sold on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Christie’s, New York, 27 October 2015 lot 73 ($221,000) and another is at the Bowes Museum.

Streatlam Castle remained the Bowes family seat until the 19th century, at which time it was enlarged by John Bowes (who founded the Bowes Museum). It was upon the latter’s death in 1885 that the house reverted to the Strathmore family who vacated in 1922; the house was demolished five years later. Lady Strathmore took some of the contents from the house back to Glamis Castle, the family’s ancestral home in Scotland, at this time (G. Worsley, England's Lost Houses, London, 2002, pp. 62-63) while other pieces were known to be sold to the London trade.

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