Lot 70
70
A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT OPEN ARMCHAIRS, possibly by Thomas Chippendale Junior, each with padded oval back, arms and serpentine seat covered in blue silk with moulded fluted frame and scrolled channelled arms, on turned tapering fluted legs headed by demi-paterae and carved with stiff leaves, on reeded pointed feet, re-gilt, the painting refresehd, one with bracket replaced, one with minor variations in carving, three formerly with back ...., two with button-holes, one with painted, the other with gilded, stiles (4)

Details
A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT OPEN ARMCHAIRS, possibly by Thomas Chippendale Junior, each with padded oval back, arms and serpentine seat covered in blue silk with moulded fluted frame and scrolled channelled arms, on turned tapering fluted legs headed by demi-paterae and carved with stiff leaves, on reeded pointed feet, re-gilt, the painting refresehd, one with bracket replaced, one with minor variations in carving, three formerly with back ...., two with button-holes, one with painted, the other with gilded, stiles (4)
Provenance
Supplied to Sir Thomas Beauchamp Proctor, Bt., Langley Hall (now Park), Norfolk
Literature
O. Brackett 'Furniture of Langley Park', Country Life, 31 March, 1928, p.469 illustrated together with the sofa p.470.
J. Fowler and J. Cornforth, English Decoration in the 18th Century, London, 1986, fig. 137
R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, Rev. Ed., 1954, vol.I, p.291, fig.207

Lot Essay

The chair designed in the Louis XVI 'antique' style and decorated in the French white and gold scheme, reflects the 1780s style of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV, and the fashion for painted furniture, as popularised by A. Hepplewhite & Co., in their Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788. With their fluted frame, bow-fronted seat-rail and 'medallion' back, curved to match the seat-frame, they relate to an armchair, with Prince of Wales' feathers, after a Hepplewhite pattern, illustrated M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, V & A, p.131.
The suite, including a sofa, was commissioned by Sir Thomas Beauchamp Proctor (d.1808) for Langley Hall (now Park), Norfolk around 1784, when he first consulted the architect Sir John Soane (d.1837). According to the furniture historian Oliver Brackett, (Country Life, 15 October, 1927, LXIII, p.567), 'various people connected with the estate' had reported seeing Chippendale furnishing bills for the house, which could no longer be traced. However designs for medallion-back chairs dating to the early 1780s and attributed to Thomas Chippendale Junior (d.1822), survive at Burton Constable (Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London 1978, p.112, figs.192-4), and as these chair legs with reeded feet relate to work being produced by his father's firm, it is reasonable to link this set to Messrs. Chippendale of St Martin's Lane
A related pair of armchairs were sold by a Lady of Title, Sotheby's & Co., 20 October 1972, lot 154.

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