.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The chairs' serpentined and foliated backs, fretted with flowered lozenge compartments crossed with cusp-arched spandrels, combine elements from two 'Gothic Chair' patterns issued in Robert Manwaring's The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, 1765, pl.14.
These chairs have a Scottish provenance and could well be made by Whytock and Reid, the well-known Edinburgh cabinet-makers and upholsterers, founded by John Reid in 1850. The years between 1890 and 1930 saw the fruit of the collaboration between Murray Reid, grandson of the founder, William Simpson, a superb designer, and John Murray, an excellent carver-designer. They were responsible for the 'inventive traditionalism' and superb craftsmanship typical of the period, and they formed a close collaboration with the famed Scottish architect, Sir Robert Lorimer (see introduction to Christie's catalogue for the Whytock and Reid sale, Belford Mews, Edinburgh, 16 May 1994).
These chairs have a Scottish provenance and could well be made by Whytock and Reid, the well-known Edinburgh cabinet-makers and upholsterers, founded by John Reid in 1850. The years between 1890 and 1930 saw the fruit of the collaboration between Murray Reid, grandson of the founder, William Simpson, a superb designer, and John Murray, an excellent carver-designer. They were responsible for the 'inventive traditionalism' and superb craftsmanship typical of the period, and they formed a close collaboration with the famed Scottish architect, Sir Robert Lorimer (see introduction to Christie's catalogue for the Whytock and Reid sale, Belford Mews, Edinburgh, 16 May 1994).