Lot Essay
This mahogany and golden traceried Grecian-sofa is executed in an antiquarian French Gothique style. The quatrefoiled medallion supported on a flowered rail, displays the Grosvenor's 'garb' crest of a golden corn-sheaf. It was commissioned for Eaton Hall, Cheshire by Robert, 2nd Earl Grosvenor (d. 1845), a descendant of William the Conqueror's nephew Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. The furnishings were celebrated during King George IV's reign by inclusion both in fashion plates issued by Rudolph Ackermann's, Repository of Arts, 1825, (pl. 151) as well as by the publication of drawings prepared in 1824 and illustrated in J.C. Buckler's, Views of Eaton Hall, 1826. Ackermann praised the elegance and originality of such furniture designed by an 'artist', and while stating that 'the furniture of a nobleman's mansion is now expected to have the benefit of chaste design, and not, as formerly, to be manufactured according to the crude notions of the mere workman'. The Earl's architect was William Porden (d.1822), Surveyor of the Grosvenor Estates. Porden embarked on the rebuilding of Eaton shortly after the Earl's inheritance of the estate in 1802. It is possible that the drawing-room furniture was designed under his direction by the French artist/draughtsman Augustus Charles Pugin (d.1832), who was involved in the decoration of Carlton House, the London mansion of George, Prince Regent, later King George IV. Porden's training with the architect James Wyatt (d.1813), had no doubt encouraged him to persuade Lord Grosvenor to adopt the noble Gothic style.
Pugin kept abreast of French fashions through his brother-in-law the designer Louis Lafitte, who was employed by Napoleon before his appointment as Louis XVIII's 'Premier dessinateur du cabinet'. The appointment took place in 1817, a year after Pugin had involved Lafitte in providing designs for the Prince Regent's triumphal celebrations at Carlton House, and the two were to collaborate in the design of a Gothic mansion for Louis XVI's daughter, the duchess d'Angouleme.
The Napoleonic wars delayed building progress for some years and this oppulent suite is likely to have been commissioned in the early 1820s and epitomises Porden's concept of the 'rich and picturesque'. Indeed its quality would merit an attribution to the court cabinet-makers Nicholas Morel and Robert Hughes, who were highly praised in Ackermann's Repository, in March, 1825. The settee and its pair (now at the Brighton Pavilion) in the Great Drawing-Room, stood out to the right of the fireplace. Its seat squab, end-scroll and pair of rectangular and accompanying pillow-roundel cushions were originally upholstered in gold-flowered crimson silk.
Pugin kept abreast of French fashions through his brother-in-law the designer Louis Lafitte, who was employed by Napoleon before his appointment as Louis XVIII's 'Premier dessinateur du cabinet'. The appointment took place in 1817, a year after Pugin had involved Lafitte in providing designs for the Prince Regent's triumphal celebrations at Carlton House, and the two were to collaborate in the design of a Gothic mansion for Louis XVI's daughter, the duchess d'Angouleme.
The Napoleonic wars delayed building progress for some years and this oppulent suite is likely to have been commissioned in the early 1820s and epitomises Porden's concept of the 'rich and picturesque'. Indeed its quality would merit an attribution to the court cabinet-makers Nicholas Morel and Robert Hughes, who were highly praised in Ackermann's Repository, in March, 1825. The settee and its pair (now at the Brighton Pavilion) in the Great Drawing-Room, stood out to the right of the fireplace. Its seat squab, end-scroll and pair of rectangular and accompanying pillow-roundel cushions were originally upholstered in gold-flowered crimson silk.