BY B. HARMER, CIRCA 1790

A versatile and prodigious chairmaker, B. Harmer worked for the leading English interior decoration firms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although his full identity remains unknown, he was undoubtedly the master of a large workshop as his stamp appears on a number of highly fashionable chairs dating from c.1795 to 1810, including hall chairs at Petworth and a magnificent suite of dolphin seat furniture attributed to Marsh and Tatham from Powderham Castle (sold Christie's London, 5 July 1990, lots 50-51; and 5 December 1991, lots 222-223). A set of giltwood armchairs bearing the Harmer stamp was most recently sold in these Rooms, 19 October 2000, lots 146-148. One of these chairs is illustrated in C. Gilbert, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p.257, fig 471.