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Lot Essay
This pair of bergeres may well have formed part of the furnishings introduced to Arbury Hall, the romantic Warwickshire house Gothicized by Sir Roger Newdigate, 5th Bt. between 1750 and 1801. Gillows had supplied a pair of demi-lune commodes to Sir Roger in 1788 and he was still furnishing the house in 1806, the year that he died (L. Boynton, (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 121, p. 168).
The caned bergere of this form, named the 'Ashburnham' chair, features in one of Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books, no. 1721, dated 1803 (Westminster City Library), while sketches of similar chairs appear in the firm's early 19th Century room plans preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its baluster arm evolved from a chair pattern illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, p. VI, and its reeded back and legs reflect Gillows' early 19th Century Grecian style.
A closely related pair of bergeres probably supplied to Morton John Davison, Esq. (1778-1841) for Beamish Park, Co. Durham and attributed to Gillows, was sold by Mrs. R.D. Shafto, in these Rooms, 21 September 1995, lot 140.
The caned bergere of this form, named the 'Ashburnham' chair, features in one of Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books, no. 1721, dated 1803 (Westminster City Library), while sketches of similar chairs appear in the firm's early 19th Century room plans preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its baluster arm evolved from a chair pattern illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, p. VI, and its reeded back and legs reflect Gillows' early 19th Century Grecian style.
A closely related pair of bergeres probably supplied to Morton John Davison, Esq. (1778-1841) for Beamish Park, Co. Durham and attributed to Gillows, was sold by Mrs. R.D. Shafto, in these Rooms, 21 September 1995, lot 140.