Lot Essay
This Grecian couch, with leopard-monopodiae providing an arm-rest and voluted end-pillow, reflects the fashion introduced around 1800 for designing furniture to stand out from a fireplace. Its form relates to that of a French chaise-longue entitled a 'Grecian Squab' in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803 (pl. 49). While deriving from Roman prototypes such as C.H. Tatham illustrated in his Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecutre, 1800, its palmette-enriched griffin monopodiae with Etruscan-fretted collars reflects the influence of drawing-room furniture patterns such as George Smith engraved in 1804 for his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1807 figs. 56 and 83. The couch formed part of a suite of Drawing-Room furniture, comprising a pair of sofas and twelve armchairs, commissioned by W.L. Hughes of Hind Street, London for Kinmel Park, the Denbighshire house of his uncle Colonel Hughes. Colonel Hughes had engaged Samuel Wyatt (d. 1807) in the reconstruction of Kinmel, and it is therefore interesting to note the close relationship that already existed between Wyatt and Gillows.
This suite was manufactured by Messrs. Gillows of Oxford Street and was reported as being ready for delivery in August 1807. Concerning the furniture for Kinmel's Drawing-Room, W.L. Hughes wrote to his uncle on the 25 July of that year
I do flatter myself that your two rooms will be the neatest and most tasteful in your neighbourhood (quoted 'The Hughes Papers', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1951, vol. 103, p. 117).
He wrote again on the 1 December..
My Dear Uncle,
I derive great pleasure from knowing that your furniture meets with your and your friends approbation, and tho' I allow the cost will be considerable, yet I hope you will find it compensated in the comfort you will derive from it, and that on the whole little has been incurred unnecessarily as possible, in the dining room I think none, the DRAWING ROOM will of course include some articles of unnecessary adornment to a man, but as I know you will like your female visitants to enjoy every comfort and luxury you can afford them, you will not I conclude deem them misapplied, and as my order were most particular that every article should be more firm and stong than they are usually made for town. I trust if they are now handsome they will be permanently so.
The contents of Kinmel was sold in 1930 and the twelve chairs were last recorded on an ocean liner!
The companion 'Grecian couch', conceived in reverse and re-upholstered according to the original guidelines, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.38 - 1930). It is inscribed in pencil on the seat-rail 'J. Barker, September, 1805, Gillow's London'. This concept of a pair of couches of opposing form standing out from a fireplace wall featured at Southill, Bedfordshire, where they were almost certainly supplied by Messrs. Marsh and Tatham.
A related suite of seat furniture, supplied to the Earls of Caledon for Caledon, Co. Tyrone, is illustrated in C. Musgrave, Regency Furniture, London, 1961, fig. 41A, while a side table with identical leopard monopodiae was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 8 July 1994, lot 61
This suite was manufactured by Messrs. Gillows of Oxford Street and was reported as being ready for delivery in August 1807. Concerning the furniture for Kinmel's Drawing-Room, W.L. Hughes wrote to his uncle on the 25 July of that year
I do flatter myself that your two rooms will be the neatest and most tasteful in your neighbourhood (quoted 'The Hughes Papers', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1951, vol. 103, p. 117).
He wrote again on the 1 December..
My Dear Uncle,
I derive great pleasure from knowing that your furniture meets with your and your friends approbation, and tho' I allow the cost will be considerable, yet I hope you will find it compensated in the comfort you will derive from it, and that on the whole little has been incurred unnecessarily as possible, in the dining room I think none, the DRAWING ROOM will of course include some articles of unnecessary adornment to a man, but as I know you will like your female visitants to enjoy every comfort and luxury you can afford them, you will not I conclude deem them misapplied, and as my order were most particular that every article should be more firm and stong than they are usually made for town. I trust if they are now handsome they will be permanently so.
The contents of Kinmel was sold in 1930 and the twelve chairs were last recorded on an ocean liner!
The companion 'Grecian couch', conceived in reverse and re-upholstered according to the original guidelines, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.38 - 1930). It is inscribed in pencil on the seat-rail 'J. Barker, September, 1805, Gillow's London'. This concept of a pair of couches of opposing form standing out from a fireplace wall featured at Southill, Bedfordshire, where they were almost certainly supplied by Messrs. Marsh and Tatham.
A related suite of seat furniture, supplied to the Earls of Caledon for Caledon, Co. Tyrone, is illustrated in C. Musgrave, Regency Furniture, London, 1961, fig. 41A, while a side table with identical leopard monopodiae was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 8 July 1994, lot 61