A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS

By Thomas Chippendale

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS
By Thomas Chippendale
En suite with the preceding lot, each with inverted heart-shaped padded back carved with guilloche and headed by ribbon-tied laurel-swags, with padded armrests on beaded scrolled supports filled with laurel, the serpentine seat above a laurel-carved apron centred by a flowerhead, on rectangular blocks, reeded tapering legs and stepped turned feet with opposing laurel and toupie bases, both covered in pink floral material, with exposed back-struts, cramp-cuts and batten carrying-holes, one with bench screw-holes, one with traces of original gilding, one chair with restored seat-rail, and one front and one back leg later (2)

Provenance

Supplied to Sir Penistone Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (1748-1819), for the Saloon of Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, circa 1773 and by descent to
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Walter Kerr, G.C.B., Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, sold Messrs. Foster house sale, 9 March 1923, lot 362.
Bought at that sale by Sir Charles Nall-Cain, Bt., 1st Lord Brocket (d. 1934) and by descent.

Literature

H. Avray Tipping, Country Life, vol. LVIII, 8 July 1925, p. 96.
H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, Period VI, vol. I, London, 1926, pp. 19-21, figs. 30-31 and 33.
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 263 and vol. II, p. 11, fig. 21; and p. 109, fig. 186.

Lot Essay

The Brocket Saloon chairs conform suitably to what Christopher Gilbert has identified as the 'uniform character' of Chippendale's chair designs of the 1770s. Although he never repeated twice an exact decorative permutation, the basic arrangement of elements is common among most provenanced suites of this date. These chairs have the constructional characteristics that has been identified as characteristic of the workshop, including the exposed back-struts, cramp-cuts and batten-holes (see: Gilbert, op. cit., vol. I, p. 41).

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