Lot Essay
These chairs are precisely of the design of a set of chairs and a matching window seat commissioned by the 4th Duke of Beaufort (1756) for Badminton House, Gloucestershire and still at the house. These chairs are illustrated in situ in the library at Badminton in C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Early Georgian, 1955, p. 163, pl. 281. A single example from this set is illustrated in P. Macquoid, The Age of Mahogany, 1906, p. 258, pl. 245.
The chairs relate to the celebrated Chinese bedroom apartment at Badminton, hung with Chinese paper and furnished with a suite including eight armchairs and a pagoda-dome bed, which were supplied by William Linnell (d. 1753), cabinet-maker of Berkeley Square. The full suite was sold on behalf of the 9th Duke by Christie's London, 17 December 1959. The bed is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and is illustrated in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, 1980, fig. 1.
These cane-seated library chairs, intended to be furnished with leather squab cushions, are notable examples of this highly fashionable pattern in the George II 'Chinese' manner. Their fretted-trellis backs derive from the type of patterns published in W. Halfpenny, Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice, 1750, E. Hoppus, The Gentleman and Builder's Repository, 1760, and J. Crunden and J. Morris, The Carpenter's Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates, 1765. The octagonal form of the tablet in the center of the back is featured on a Chinese chair pattern in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, pl. XXVII. Chippendale considered these chairs 'very proper for a Lady's Dressing-Room; especially if it is hung with India paper...They have commonly cane-bottoms, with loose cushions'.
While no documentation exists regarding the commission of the Badminton chairs, it is likely that they were executed by Linnell or possibly by Thomas Chippendale. The 4th Duke of Beaufort was, in fact, a subscriber to The Director, and his patronage of Linnell has already been discussed. Certainly, if the offered chairs did not come from the Badminton set, they would have been supplied by the same firm who provided the set at Badminton.
The chairs relate to the celebrated Chinese bedroom apartment at Badminton, hung with Chinese paper and furnished with a suite including eight armchairs and a pagoda-dome bed, which were supplied by William Linnell (d. 1753), cabinet-maker of Berkeley Square. The full suite was sold on behalf of the 9th Duke by Christie's London, 17 December 1959. The bed is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and is illustrated in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, 1980, fig. 1.
These cane-seated library chairs, intended to be furnished with leather squab cushions, are notable examples of this highly fashionable pattern in the George II 'Chinese' manner. Their fretted-trellis backs derive from the type of patterns published in W. Halfpenny, Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice, 1750, E. Hoppus, The Gentleman and Builder's Repository, 1760, and J. Crunden and J. Morris, The Carpenter's Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates, 1765. The octagonal form of the tablet in the center of the back is featured on a Chinese chair pattern in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, pl. XXVII. Chippendale considered these chairs 'very proper for a Lady's Dressing-Room; especially if it is hung with India paper...They have commonly cane-bottoms, with loose cushions'.
While no documentation exists regarding the commission of the Badminton chairs, it is likely that they were executed by Linnell or possibly by Thomas Chippendale. The 4th Duke of Beaufort was, in fact, a subscriber to The Director, and his patronage of Linnell has already been discussed. Certainly, if the offered chairs did not come from the Badminton set, they would have been supplied by the same firm who provided the set at Badminton.