A NORTH EUROPEAN WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIR

LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A NORTH EUROPEAN WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIR
Late 18th Century
With fluted frame, the padded rectangular back, seat and arms covered in red velvet, the arms terminating in eagle heads above Egyptian-striated panels, on sabre legs, one foot with repaired break, the upholstery distressed, one seat-rail indistinctly inscribed in chalk, previously green painted

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's London, 14 November 1986, lot 113.

Lot Essay

This open armchair relates closely to French chairs of the late 18th Century, with its square back and seat, downswept arms and curved supports, however the construction is not French. The use of Jupiter eagle-heads on the arms is seen on the set of seat furniture supplied for the Chinese Drawing Room at Carlton House by Francis Herv in 1790 (illustrated in F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Suffolk 1985, p.37). A set of four sabre-leg armchairs with owl-masks (symbolising wisdom) carved on the armrests are in the library at Melford Hall, Suffolk, and were probably supplied by Morant & Co. as part of a larger set (Gervase Jackson-Stops, 'Thomas Hopper at Melford and Erddig', National Trust Studies, 1980, p.72, fig.4).
A very similar chair was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 8 February 1996, lot 31.

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