CIRCA 1690

The splayed rear legs of these chairs are a typically English characteristic for a form which is international in style in the late 17th century, influenced by the court style established by Louis XIV at Versailles. A virtually identical example is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and is illustrated in C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, no. 470, p.269. Interestingly, the Getty example has a replaced top rail to the back which dates to the 19th Century, and may possibly have originally had a flat rather than curved rail. A similar pair of side chairs are at Hampton Court (see J. Cornforth, 'Triumph at Hampton Court', Country Life, 20 August 1992, fig. 7, p.45; another pair from this set is illustrated in L. Synge, Great English Furniture, 1991, fig. 11, p. 24. A related suite probably commissioned by the 1st Duke of Manchester for Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 1991, lot 33 and two chairs from the suite are illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev.edn., London, 1954, vol.I, pl.XIII. A further related example from the late Theresa Lady Montgomery, Kinross House, is illustrated in M. Harris and Sons, The English Chair, London, 1946, pl. xxiiia, p. 95.