18TH CENTURY, IN THE GOTHIC TASTE

Details

A pair of English oak armchairs
18th century, in the Gothic taste
Each with a triple finial shaped solid back, the plain moulded arms with foliate terminals, on shaped supports, above dished solid seat, on slightly scrolled legs carved with flowerheads (2)

Provenance

Major-General E. H. Goulbourn, Apley Castle, Wellington, Shropshire (+); sold Christie's London, 30 April 1981, lot 245.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The antiquarian throne-like seats, with pinnacled backs flowered in the fashion of Gothic pew ends, come from Apley Castle, Shropshire, which was built in the late 18th century by the Shrewsbury architect Joseph Bromfield (d. 1824) for St. John Charlton. The Castle featured in J. B. Burke's Visitations of Seats, 1853 (vol. XXII, p. 135); and Shropshire Castles and Old Mansions, 1868 (no. 45).

Their hollowed seats are a particular feature of chairs executed around East Anglia in the early 19th century (see B. Cotton, The English Regional Chair, 1990, p. 214).

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