Lot Essay
A pair of chairs from this set was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 4 July 1996, lot 337 (£52,100).
The chair's ribbon-fret back with foliated arches and lozenged-trellis, as well as the voluted and acanthus-wrapped uprights, features in patterns for 'Gothic Chairs' that are attributed to Robert Manwaring and illustrated in the Society of Upholsters' Genteel Household Furniture, London, 2nd ed., circa 1765, pl. 14. Other examples are illustrated in Manwaring's Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, 1765, pls. 13 and 15. In the latter publication, the cabinet-maker Thomas Manwaring of Haymarket, London claimed that his designs were 'Originals, and not pirated or copied' and that 'There are very few designs advanced, but what he has either executed himself, or seen completely finished by others'. Concerning his patterns for this form of 'Gothick Chairs', he noted 'Some of them I have executed in mahogany'.
A very similar pair of chairs is illustrated in Edward Wenham, The Collector's Guide to Furniture Design, New York, 1928, p. 26, fig. 64.
The chair's ribbon-fret back with foliated arches and lozenged-trellis, as well as the voluted and acanthus-wrapped uprights, features in patterns for 'Gothic Chairs' that are attributed to Robert Manwaring and illustrated in the Society of Upholsters' Genteel Household Furniture, London, 2nd ed., circa 1765, pl. 14. Other examples are illustrated in Manwaring's Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, 1765, pls. 13 and 15. In the latter publication, the cabinet-maker Thomas Manwaring of Haymarket, London claimed that his designs were 'Originals, and not pirated or copied' and that 'There are very few designs advanced, but what he has either executed himself, or seen completely finished by others'. Concerning his patterns for this form of 'Gothick Chairs', he noted 'Some of them I have executed in mahogany'.
A very similar pair of chairs is illustrated in Edward Wenham, The Collector's Guide to Furniture Design, New York, 1928, p. 26, fig. 64.