Lot Essay
This pair of elegant bronzed and gilt-enriched 'bergere' armchairs are designed in the French/antique style promoted by Thomas Hope in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration of 1807. Conceived as Consular thrones, they combine Greek and Roman elements with their palm-wrapped griffin monopodia supporting arm-rests terminating in palm-flowered acroteria. Their basic pattern, with Grecian-scrolled back, palm-enrichments and 'Vitruvian' fretted rail, derives from an armchair executed around 1800 for Hope's Duchess Street mansion and illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl.LIX, no.2. The winged arms' lion-monopodia derive from banquettes placed beneath Hope's display of Grecian vases in a Drawing Room (op.cit, pl.V). These monopodia, intended to recall the chimerical griffin, considered by poets as sacred to Apollo, the leader of the Muses of artistic inspiration on Mount Parnassus, were accompanied by Hope's griffin-tripod table described as 'A table supported by Chimaeras in bronze, similar to some limbs of ideal animals, adapted to the same purpose which have been found among the remains of Pompeia'.
In 1805, the Prince Regent's 'Upholder' George Smith had adapted Hope's armchair pattern for one of his 'Library Fauteuils' issued in his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1808, pl.48. The present bergeres relate to a suite with 'griffin monopodia' supplied in 1812 by Charles Heathcote Tatham (d.1842) for the Prince Regent's Blue Velvet Room at Carlton House, London (see Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, London, 1991, pl.V).
These armchairs are attributed to Nicholas Morel and Robert Hughes of 13 Great Marlborough Street, who served as court cabinet-makers for the Prince of Wales at Carlton House, and continued to supply the Royal residences until the 1820's when Morel and George Seddon formed a partnership and provided the furniture and furnishings for Windsor Castle (G.Beard and C.Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp.623-625). The bergeres relate to other seat furniture attributed to the Morel and Hughes partnership, in particular, a pair of bergere-chairs supplied in around 1815 for the 6th Duke of Devonshire's London mansion. This pair, which lacks the monopodia feature, appears in a watercolor of the Saloon executed in 1822 (see J.Fowler and J.Cornforth, English Decoration in the 18th Century, London, 1974, pl.VI). Four related 'very handsome bergere chairs' with Vitruvian-fretted rails were supplied by the firm in 1813 to the 2nd Marquess of Bath as part of a large suite of seat furniture for Longleat, Wiltshire (Longleat Guide Book, circa 1995, p.25).
In 1805, the Prince Regent's 'Upholder' George Smith had adapted Hope's armchair pattern for one of his 'Library Fauteuils' issued in his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1808, pl.48. The present bergeres relate to a suite with 'griffin monopodia' supplied in 1812 by Charles Heathcote Tatham (d.1842) for the Prince Regent's Blue Velvet Room at Carlton House, London (see Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, London, 1991, pl.V).
These armchairs are attributed to Nicholas Morel and Robert Hughes of 13 Great Marlborough Street, who served as court cabinet-makers for the Prince of Wales at Carlton House, and continued to supply the Royal residences until the 1820's when Morel and George Seddon formed a partnership and provided the furniture and furnishings for Windsor Castle (G.Beard and C.Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp.623-625). The bergeres relate to other seat furniture attributed to the Morel and Hughes partnership, in particular, a pair of bergere-chairs supplied in around 1815 for the 6th Duke of Devonshire's London mansion. This pair, which lacks the monopodia feature, appears in a watercolor of the Saloon executed in 1822 (see J.Fowler and J.Cornforth, English Decoration in the 18th Century, London, 1974, pl.VI). Four related 'very handsome bergere chairs' with Vitruvian-fretted rails were supplied by the firm in 1813 to the 2nd Marquess of Bath as part of a large suite of seat furniture for Longleat, Wiltshire (Longleat Guide Book, circa 1995, p.25).