Lot Essay
This is based on an 1810 design for a 'Library Reading Chair' published by the firm of Morgan and Sanders of 16 and 17 Catherine Street, The Strand in Ackermann's The Repository of Arts (reproduced in P.Agius, ed., Ackermann's Regency Furniture and Interiors, 1984, pl.19). According to Sheraton in his Cabinet Dictionary of 1803, such chairs were 'intended to make the exercise of reading easy, and for the convenience of taking down a note or quotation from any subject' by seating the reader 'with his back to the front of the chair' while resting his arms 'on the top yoke'. A similar chair is illustrated in M.Jourdain, Regency Furniture, 1965, p.51, fig.83.