Lot Essay
There is a design for 'Library Reading Chairs' published in Ackermann's Repository of Arts for September 1810 which includes a chair of similar model. In the caption, it says, 'gentlemen either sit across, with the face towards the desk, contrived for reading, writing, & c. and which, by a rising rack, can be elevated at pleasure; or, when its occupier is tired of the first position, it is with the greatest ease turned round in a brass grove [sic.], to either one side or the other; in which case, the gentleman sits sideways. The circling arms in either way form a pleasant easy back, and also, in every direction, supports for the arms. As a proof of their real comfort and convenience, they are now in great sale at the warerooms of the inventors, Messrs. Morgan and Sanders, Catherine-street, Strand' (P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture and Interiors, Marlborough, 1984, p. 54, pl. 19).
Thomas Willson of 68 Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields was both a cabinet-maker and a dealer in second-hand furniture, who is recorded in directories between 1821 and 1829. Many pieces of 18th Century furniture with his stamp are recorded, including a mahogany chest of drawers sold anonymously in these Rooms, 26 February 1970, lot 91. The discovery of Willson's label describing himself as a 'Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer' of 'Every Article of Furniture for the Drawing, Dining, Bed Rooms and Library, of first-class make', suggests that the firm's name-stamped furniture can be divided into two catagories: second-hand pieces which were merely retailed and items made in their own workshops for sale (C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp. 56, 483 and 485, figs. 989 and 996).
A similar chair is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1965, fig. 83. Several other reading-chairs of this distinctive Gothic variation have been sold: one anonymously in these Rooms, 21 November 1985, lot 12 and another also anonymously in these Rooms, 16 November 1995, lot 341.
Thomas Willson of 68 Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields was both a cabinet-maker and a dealer in second-hand furniture, who is recorded in directories between 1821 and 1829. Many pieces of 18th Century furniture with his stamp are recorded, including a mahogany chest of drawers sold anonymously in these Rooms, 26 February 1970, lot 91. The discovery of Willson's label describing himself as a 'Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer' of 'Every Article of Furniture for the Drawing, Dining, Bed Rooms and Library, of first-class make', suggests that the firm's name-stamped furniture can be divided into two catagories: second-hand pieces which were merely retailed and items made in their own workshops for sale (C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp. 56, 483 and 485, figs. 989 and 996).
A similar chair is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1965, fig. 83. Several other reading-chairs of this distinctive Gothic variation have been sold: one anonymously in these Rooms, 21 November 1985, lot 12 and another also anonymously in these Rooms, 16 November 1995, lot 341.