Lot Essay
The vine-spray carving on the knees of these chairs with their voluted reed and acanthus-wrapped toprail and scrolled feet, relates to a set of mahogany dining-chairs supplied circa 1770 to Lady Louisa Conolly (d. 1821), for the Dining-Room at Castletown, Co. Kildare (The Georgian Society, Records of Eighteenth-Century Domestic Architecture and Decoration in Ireland, Dublin, 1913, vol. V, pl. XXVII). The Castletown chairs (now in a private collection) have trailing fruiting vines, symbols of Bacchus and festivity, carved on the toprail, stiles and stretcher and continued the theme begun in the elaborate Dining-Room pier glasses probably carved by the Dublin carver, Richard Cranfield (d. 1809) ('Castletown', Guidebook, Dublin, circa 1994, p. 10).
A related set of seat furniture with cabriole legs headed by carved oak leaves, was sold by a nobleman, in these Rooms, 14 November 1991, lot 123, while a similar single mahogany dining-chair with acanthus-carved angle-brackets and oak leaves issuing an acorn, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 July 1987, lot 44.
A related set of seat furniture with cabriole legs headed by carved oak leaves, was sold by a nobleman, in these Rooms, 14 November 1991, lot 123, while a similar single mahogany dining-chair with acanthus-carved angle-brackets and oak leaves issuing an acorn, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 July 1987, lot 44.