Lot Essay
Designs for related 'chaise longues' appropriate for libraries and 'admissable in almost every other room', together with features, such as the Grecian 'akroteria' corners above peg-foot and the quatrefoil frieze, which appear on this single-ended 'Grecian' couch, are found in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, published in 1808 by George Smith, 'Upholder' to George, Prince of Wales (particularly pl. 54). In 1806 the Prince had furnished the Library at Carlton House with ebony furniture inlaid with ivory in the 'Etruscan' manner which was supplied by Marsh and Tatham. At the same time the Marquess of Buckingham (d. 1814) had commissioned 'Gothic' ebony and ivory furniture for the Library at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.
The 1806 Carlton House scheme only remained in place for two years and the Marsh and Tatham furniture was put into store. Some of it was subsequently altered by Morel and Seddon in 1827 for George IV's new Library (now the Green Drawing-Room) and the Grand Corridor at Windsor. Most of the remaining library furniture from Carlton House was altered in 1836 by Edward Bailey of Mount Street for re-use in William IV's Library at Windsor (see: H. Roberts, 'Metamorphoses in Wood, Royal Library Furniture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Apollo, July 1990, pp. 382-390).
The 1806 Carlton House scheme only remained in place for two years and the Marsh and Tatham furniture was put into store. Some of it was subsequently altered by Morel and Seddon in 1827 for George IV's new Library (now the Green Drawing-Room) and the Grand Corridor at Windsor. Most of the remaining library furniture from Carlton House was altered in 1836 by Edward Bailey of Mount Street for re-use in William IV's Library at Windsor (see: H. Roberts, 'Metamorphoses in Wood, Royal Library Furniture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Apollo, July 1990, pp. 382-390).