A PAIR OF GEORGE III BEECHWOOD ARMCHAIRS

POSSIBLY BY JOHN GORDON, CIRCA 1775

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III BEECHWOOD ARMCHAIRS
Possibly by John Gordon, Circa 1775
Of impressive proportions, each with a cartouche-form padded back and seat covered in peach floral-cut velvet, within a beaded and ribbon-entwined frame centering a ribbon-tied medallion, flanked by scrolled ornaments, over a serpentine seatrail carved with flowerhead medallion issuing berried branches, on foliate-headed molded cabriole legs, formerly decorated (2)

Lot Essay

These serpentined chairs relate to French 'easy chair' patterns published in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1752-1763 and while Chippendale supplied chairs of a similar outline for the Library at Harewood House, Yorkshire (see C.Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, New York, 1978, vol.II, p.114, fig.197), these chairs relate more closely to the work of the St. James's cabinet-maker John Gordon (d.1777). Their generous proportions, broader flatter outline of the back and boldly beaded arm supports feature on a pair of chairs attributed to this maker and were possibly part of a suite supplied to 1st Earl Harcourt for Nuneham Park in Oxfordshire, sold Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1996, lot 214 ($134,500). Another pair of the same model was sold by Christie's London, 24 March 1984, lot 45. The Nuneham Park chairs are virtually identical, with the exception of the beaded arms, to the celebrated suite commissioned by John Spencer, 1st Earl of Spencer (d.1783) for his London mansion at St. James's (illustrated in situ in J.Friedman, Spencer House, London, 1993, p.254, fig.227). Despite the absence of documentary evidence, the Spencer House suite has been confidently attributed to the Gordon workshop based on a number of factors. Surviving documents show that the firm of Gordon and Taitt, with whom John Gordon formed a partnership in 1767, was supplying furniture and carrying out repairs for the Spencers by 1772 and further evidence confirms a strong and a longstanding relationship with the maker. Furthermore, there are close stylistic affinities that link the Spencer House suite with documented Gordon furniture supplied to the 2nd Duke of Atholl for Blair Castle in 1748 (see P. Thornton and J. Hardy, 'The Spencer Furniture at Althorp', Apollo, June 1968, pp. 440-451, figs.6-7). While the majority of the Spencer House suite is now at the family seat at Althorp, a pair of is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (nos.W.51 & A.1984) and a further pair was sold by Mr. Edward Sarofim, Christie's London, 16 November 1995, lot 149.