A GEORGE II SABICU LIBRARY ARMCHAIR

CIRCA 1750, PROBABLY IRISH

細節

A GEORGE II SABICU LIBRARY ARMCHAIR
Circa 1750, probably Irish
The arched rectangular back, arms and bow-fronted square seat upholstered in brown-ground floral-patterned silk, each inscrolled arm terminal set with a scallop shell and acanthus-wrapped, the squared downswept uprights with acanthus-carved base, each acanthus-headed cabriole leg with gadrooned volute angles and knuckled hairy lion paw feet, largely rerailed, rear left foot partially replaced in mahogany

拍品專文

With its distinctive high profiled paw feet and typically Irish attenuated muscular ankles, this chair relates closely to a stool sold from the Estate of Sydney R. Newman in these Rooms, 12 October 1996, lot 249. A further identifiable group of stools, probably all executed in the same workshop and displaying the same exaggerated paw-and-ball feet, comprise a single example from the collection of Frank Crozier Knowles, sold with contemporary needlework at Christie's New York, 22 October 1988, lot 208 ($38,500); a pair, one of which was stamped 'IDS', presumably for a journeyman chairmaker, lacking their needlework, sold anonymously at Christie's London, 25 October 1990, lot 109; a further pair, probably the same, advertised by Mallett in 1998; and another sold anonymously in these Rooms, 13 April 2000, lot 129.

A suite of side chairs with similarly articulated animal legs and feet are illustrated in situ in the State Sitting-Room at Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire (H.A. Tipping, English Homes, period III, vol.II, London, 1927, p.177, fig.210).

The use of solid sabicu on seat-furniture is extremely unusual, perhaps suggesting that the original patron had strong Colonial ties, perhaps through the East India Company.