A PAIR OF GEORGE II BLACK AND GILT JAPANNED OPEN ARMCHAIRS by William and John Linnell, each with stepped rectangular back filled with black and gold Chinese paling, the central uprights decorated in raised gilt with buildings and landscape vignettes surmounted by pagoda-shaped crestings, the side uprights with Chinese-style character marks, the canted sides filled with key-pattern paling, the upholstered seats covered in red velvet on panelled square legs decorated with interlocking geometric patterns and flowerheads, one reduced in height by 1¼in. (3cm.), traces of blue and red decoration 40¾in. (103.5cm.) high; 26½in. (67.5cm.) wide (2)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

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A PAIR OF GEORGE II BLACK AND GILT JAPANNED OPEN ARMCHAIRS by William and John Linnell, each with stepped rectangular back filled with black and gold Chinese paling, the central uprights decorated in raised gilt with buildings and landscape vignettes surmounted by pagoda-shaped crestings, the side uprights with Chinese-style character marks, the canted sides filled with key-pattern paling, the upholstered seats covered in red velvet on panelled square legs decorated with interlocking geometric patterns and flowerheads, one reduced in height by 1¼in. (3cm.), traces of blue and red decoration 40¾in. (103.5cm.) high; 26½in. (67.5cm.) wide (2)

Provenance

Made for the 4th Duke of Beaufort. By descent to the 9th Duke of Beaufort, sold in these Rooms, 30 June 1921, lot 49 (the complete set of eight chairs). Four were resold in the Rooms, 17 December 1959, lot 128 from the Collection of the Earl Beatty. A pair from the set of four was sold in these Rooms, 7 July 1988, lot 65, and are now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and were exhibited in the Linnell Loan Exhibition, Christie's, 1980, no. 2 and The Treasure Houses of Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, November 1985 - April 1986, no. 369. The remaining pair from the 1959 set of four was sold in these Rooms, 19 April 1990, lot 33. They are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Literature

P. Macquoid, The Age of Satinwood, London, 1908, fig. 13 H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol.I, pp. 106-108 and vol.II, pl. 1

Lot Essay

These chairs are part of a set of eight armchairs which formed part of the famous suite of japanned furniture supplied by William and John Linnell to the 4th Duke of Beaufort (1709-1759) for the Chinese Bedroom at Badminton House, Gloucestershire. The furniture for this room, which was hung with Chinese painted paper, included the canopied bed (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum [W.143-1921]), a dressing commode (also in the Victoria and Albert Museum [W.55-1921]) and two pairs of standing shelves (a pair in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (P. Macquoid, Catalogue, 1928, no. 168) and a pair in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (W. Rieder, The Untermeyer Collection, 1977, no. 150).

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