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Lot Essay
The chair-backs, richly carved with Venus-shell and C-scrolls, reflect the robust George IV French antique style that George Smith promoted with The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826. The same patterned back features on a set of similar chairs stamped by Gillows of Lancaster (V. Slowe, Treasures from Abbot Hall, Kendal, Kendal, 1989, p. 6).
Grecian hall chairs of related form, with Venus-shell crestings, and featuring the stamp 'Gillows Lancaster' are illustrated in M. Burkett, History of Gillows of Lancaster, London, 1969, pl. 1l4. Another related pair, painted with a family crest, was advertised by Jeremy Ltd. in Country Life, 22 March 1990. A further pair with almost identical reeded shell backs was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 12 February 1999, lot 132. Shell-crested hall chairs of a related pattern were introduced at the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (O. Brackett, An Encyclopaedia of English Furniture, 1927, p. 283).
Grecian hall chairs of related form, with Venus-shell crestings, and featuring the stamp 'Gillows Lancaster' are illustrated in M. Burkett, History of Gillows of Lancaster, London, 1969, pl. 1l4. Another related pair, painted with a family crest, was advertised by Jeremy Ltd. in Country Life, 22 March 1990. A further pair with almost identical reeded shell backs was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 12 February 1999, lot 132. Shell-crested hall chairs of a related pattern were introduced at the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (O. Brackett, An Encyclopaedia of English Furniture, 1927, p. 283).