CIRCA 1720

The parlour chairs, conceived in the George I 'India' [Chinese] manner have their rectilinear 'banister' splats heraldically charged with the 'horse' crest of Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 2nd Bt., (d. 1775) of Wricklemarsh, Blackheath, Kent. His father, Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 1st Bt., (d. 1720) was created 1st baronet by George I in 1714 and was a director and later chairman of the East India Company. Sir Gregory Page-Turner, 2nd Bt., was a director of the East India Company from 1719-20.

Christie's sold the contents of Wricklemarsh in a house sale 23-29 April 1783. There were are number of chairs in this sale, however based on the very brief descriptions in the sale catalogue it has not been possible to identify the present examples. Ten Anglo-Chinese padouk chairs inlaid in mother-of-pearl with the Page-Turner arms, are identifiable and were sold in the Wricklemarsh house sale, lot 50. Six of these chairs are now in the Sir John Soane Museum, London. A pair of George I japanned hall chairs painted with the Page-Turner arms also sold in the Wricklemarsh sale, lot 69. These chairs were sold again at Christie's London, 15 November 1990, lot 69. The Page-Turner crest also features on a chair acquired in 1959 by the Victoria and Albert Museum (C. Gilbert and T. Murdoch, John Channon and brass-inlaid furniture 1730-1760, London, 1993, fig. 173).