Lot Essay
Designed in the 'Grecian' manner with scrolled and fluted back and stele-ended arms enriched with ormolu palm-flowers, this sofa corresponds closely to the 'two Greek sofas...enriched with highly finished or-molu ornaments' supplied by George Bullock (d. 1818) for Napoleon's use at New Longwood, St. Helena in 1815. Illustrated in the floor-plan scheme for the Drawing-Room of New Longwood, which is dated November 1815, the pattern was subsequently published in Richard Brown's Rudiments of Drawing Cabinet and Upholstery Furniture of 1822, pl. XII. One of the New Longwood sofas was sold by the Army and Navy club, in these Rooms, 3 July 1997, lot 55 (£40,0000).
A further set of four sofas of this pattern at Tabley House, Cheshire, are likely to have been commissioned by Sir John Fleming Leicester (d. 1827) as part of the furnishing of his new picture gallery, which was being carried out by Bullock around 1815 (P.Cannon-Brookes, 'Tabley House', Guidebook, 1991, pp. 18-20).
A further set of four sofas of this pattern at Tabley House, Cheshire, are likely to have been commissioned by Sir John Fleming Leicester (d. 1827) as part of the furnishing of his new picture gallery, which was being carried out by Bullock around 1815 (P.Cannon-Brookes, 'Tabley House', Guidebook, 1991, pp. 18-20).