Lot Essay
This ormolu-enriched black rosewood parlour or dining-chair was commissioned by George IV for Windsor Castle's Great Dining-Room in June 1827. Supplied by the King's Upholder Extraordinary Nicholas Morel and George Seddon to the designs of Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-52), their 1828 account lists
'... 48 dining-room chairs ornamented and gilt frames as designed, the backs and seats stepped and covered with office silk and trimmed with silk gimp. lace fringe etc'
(Windsor Royal Archives, Estimates, vol. I, March I, p. 84). However, the order was apparently reduced to three dozen, as the account book entry is annotated 'query if 36'.
Designed to harmonise with Sir Jeffrey Wyatville's (d. 1840) interior, they reflect Pugin's enthusiasm for the Mediaeval Gothic style which had been fostered by the connoisseur William Beckford (d. 1844). With their hermed octagonal legs and buttressed and hollowed back, originally upholstered in 'crimson figured damask' at #19/- a yard they relate to another suite of chairs, almost certainly supplied for the Windsor Castle Coffee-Room. However, while the latter have crest-rails flowered with fretted quatrefoils, this suite is embellished with golden bas-reliefs of bacchic vines in the Gothic manner. Similar tablets also feature on a suite of chairs supplied to the 2nd Earl Grosvenor (d. 1845) for Eaton Hall, Cheshire, after a design attributed to Augustus Welby Pugin's father, Augustus Charles Pugin (d. 1832). This suite was illustrated in R. Ackermann's Repository of the Arts, 1825 (P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright, Pugin, London, 1994, fig. 223).
The chairs formed part of the celebrated furnishings supplied by Nicholas Morel, 'Upholder Extraordinary' to the Prince Regent and his partner from 1827, George Seddon of Alderton Street. First engaged at Brighton Pavilion in 1795 and thence Carlton House, Morel was engaged at Windsor, following a study visit to Paris, by express command of the King. Their total account for the Windsor commission, amounting to some #200,000, far exceeded the original estimate and was later reduced by King William IV's treasury to #179,300 18s 9d. In his True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, 1841', Pugin to some extent defended the commission arguing that the chairs had been exceedingly well executed.
Pugin's association with Morel and Seddon commenced in March 1827, when he was engaged to 'make drawings of furniture in Carlton Palace... previous to their removal to Windsor Castle'; but from 26 June of that year he was paid #1.1s per day to 'design and make working drawings for the gothic furniture of Windsor Castle'. As well as the Coffee-Room and Great Dining-Room furniture, his contract included 'The Long Gallery, the Vestibule Anti-Room, Grand Staircase, Octagon Room in the Brunswick tower' (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 1978, vol. I, no. 96). The origin of this style, however, recalling the domestic architecture of the Middle Ages, can be traced throughout this period and corresponds to an engraving of 1826 for an ormolu-enriched rosewood bed worthy of King George IV, that was published the following year in R. Ackermann's Repository of the Arts, vol. IX, 1827, p. 169.
The inscription of 'Thos. Hoare' is shared with the 'No. 3' chair at Temple Newsam (C.Gilbert, op. cit., p. 108, no. 96). Further inscriptions of 'Thomson', 'Rosier' and 'T. Shepperd', presumably belonging to craftsmen employed by Morel and Seddon, are recorded on chairs from this suite (G. de Bellaigue, 'George IV and the furnishings of Windsor Castle', Furniture History Society Journal, 1972, pp. 2-34, pl. 7).
At the time of the 1866 Inventory, twelve chairs from this suite had been moved to the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace. Of the original thirty-six, approximately two thirds remain in the Royal Collection, a further pair is at Temple Newsam, Leeds and another is in the Henry Huntingdon Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.
'... 48 dining-room chairs ornamented and gilt frames as designed, the backs and seats stepped and covered with office silk and trimmed with silk gimp. lace fringe etc'
(Windsor Royal Archives, Estimates, vol. I, March I, p. 84). However, the order was apparently reduced to three dozen, as the account book entry is annotated 'query if 36'.
Designed to harmonise with Sir Jeffrey Wyatville's (d. 1840) interior, they reflect Pugin's enthusiasm for the Mediaeval Gothic style which had been fostered by the connoisseur William Beckford (d. 1844). With their hermed octagonal legs and buttressed and hollowed back, originally upholstered in 'crimson figured damask' at #19/- a yard they relate to another suite of chairs, almost certainly supplied for the Windsor Castle Coffee-Room. However, while the latter have crest-rails flowered with fretted quatrefoils, this suite is embellished with golden bas-reliefs of bacchic vines in the Gothic manner. Similar tablets also feature on a suite of chairs supplied to the 2nd Earl Grosvenor (d. 1845) for Eaton Hall, Cheshire, after a design attributed to Augustus Welby Pugin's father, Augustus Charles Pugin (d. 1832). This suite was illustrated in R. Ackermann's Repository of the Arts, 1825 (P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright, Pugin, London, 1994, fig. 223).
The chairs formed part of the celebrated furnishings supplied by Nicholas Morel, 'Upholder Extraordinary' to the Prince Regent and his partner from 1827, George Seddon of Alderton Street. First engaged at Brighton Pavilion in 1795 and thence Carlton House, Morel was engaged at Windsor, following a study visit to Paris, by express command of the King. Their total account for the Windsor commission, amounting to some #200,000, far exceeded the original estimate and was later reduced by King William IV's treasury to #179,300 18s 9d. In his True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture, 1841', Pugin to some extent defended the commission arguing that the chairs had been exceedingly well executed.
Pugin's association with Morel and Seddon commenced in March 1827, when he was engaged to 'make drawings of furniture in Carlton Palace... previous to their removal to Windsor Castle'; but from 26 June of that year he was paid #1.1s per day to 'design and make working drawings for the gothic furniture of Windsor Castle'. As well as the Coffee-Room and Great Dining-Room furniture, his contract included 'The Long Gallery, the Vestibule Anti-Room, Grand Staircase, Octagon Room in the Brunswick tower' (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 1978, vol. I, no. 96). The origin of this style, however, recalling the domestic architecture of the Middle Ages, can be traced throughout this period and corresponds to an engraving of 1826 for an ormolu-enriched rosewood bed worthy of King George IV, that was published the following year in R. Ackermann's Repository of the Arts, vol. IX, 1827, p. 169.
The inscription of 'Thos. Hoare' is shared with the 'No. 3' chair at Temple Newsam (C.Gilbert, op. cit., p. 108, no. 96). Further inscriptions of 'Thomson', 'Rosier' and 'T. Shepperd', presumably belonging to craftsmen employed by Morel and Seddon, are recorded on chairs from this suite (G. de Bellaigue, 'George IV and the furnishings of Windsor Castle', Furniture History Society Journal, 1972, pp. 2-34, pl. 7).
At the time of the 1866 Inventory, twelve chairs from this suite had been moved to the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace. Of the original thirty-six, approximately two thirds remain in the Royal Collection, a further pair is at Temple Newsam, Leeds and another is in the Henry Huntingdon Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.