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Lot Essay
This chair is designed in the George II 'Roman' manner with ornamentation that harmonises with that found in the parlour at Ditchley, created in the late 1730s by Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), who served as 'Clerk of Works' at George II's London palaces and was assistant to the Palladian artist/architect William Kent (1685-1748), the King's 'Master Carpenter'. The room frieze, for instance, displays wave-scrolls alternating with cornucopiae that are sacred to the harvest deity Ceres, while the room's overmantel frame is crowned by a bubbled cartouche enriched with a 'Venus' shell drawn by dolphins.
It is possible this chair is part of the set of '10 Mahogany chairs with red morocco seats and four elbow chairs' listed at Ditchley in the 1743 inventory, which were sold in the Sotheby's house sale, 26 May 1933, lots 140 and 141. Another chair of this model was sold Christie's, New York, 18 October 2001, lot 83 ($12,925). As considerable payments were made to the Soho cabinet-maker and upholsterer William Bradshaw (1728-75) in the years 1740-1742, it seems likely it was he who supplied these chairs (J. Cornforth, 'Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire - II', Country Life, 24 November 1988, p. 83).
It is possible this chair is part of the set of '10 Mahogany chairs with red morocco seats and four elbow chairs' listed at Ditchley in the 1743 inventory, which were sold in the Sotheby's house sale, 26 May 1933, lots 140 and 141. Another chair of this model was sold Christie's, New York, 18 October 2001, lot 83 ($12,925). As considerable payments were made to the Soho cabinet-maker and upholsterer William Bradshaw (1728-75) in the years 1740-1742, it seems likely it was he who supplied these chairs (J. Cornforth, 'Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire - II', Country Life, 24 November 1988, p. 83).