POSSIBLY IRISH, CIRCA 1735

With its distinctive profile, boldly scrolling cabriole legs and exaggerated paw-and-ball feet, this stool belongs to an identifiable group undoubtedly executed in the same workshop. These comprise:- a single example from the collection of Dr. Frank Crozier Knowles, sold with contemporary needlework at Christie's New York, 22 October 1988, lot 208 ($38,500); a pair, one of which was stamped 'IDS', presumably for a journeyman chairmaker, lacking their needlework, sold anonymously at Christie's London, 25 October 1990, lot 109; and a further pair, probably the same, which are now in a Private Collection and were advertised by Mallett in 1998 with associated needlework dated 1750 from Burlton Hall, Shropshire (the needlework 'having never before been used as a covering'). Malletts' advertisement also noted a partially legible paper label attached to the stools themselves, which reads ..Prince of Wales..; this presumably refers to an earlier provenance for that pair.

A stool with similar high profiled paw feet but with typically Irish attenuated muscular ankles from the Estate of Sydney R. Newman, was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 1996, lot 249.