SET OF EIGHT EARLY VICTORIAN MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID AND GILT-DECORATED PAPIER MACHE TUB SIDE CHAIRS by Jennens and Bettridge, decorated overall with birds and scrolls, each with deeply-curved arched back decorated with birds drinking at a fountain, the padded drop-in seats covered in black-ground chinoiserie silk, on notched cabriole legs, stamped JENNENS & BETTRIDGE/LONDON/BIRMM, all stamped JENNENS & BETTRIDGE, six stamped TR twice, three seats stamped TR, two seats lacking and one covered in red silk, variously numbered, the backs with registration marks for August 10th 1844 (8)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (Lots 112 - 113)

Details

SET OF EIGHT EARLY VICTORIAN MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID AND GILT-DECORATED PAPIER MACHE TUB SIDE CHAIRS by Jennens and Bettridge, decorated overall with birds and scrolls, each with deeply-curved arched back decorated with birds drinking at a fountain, the padded drop-in seats covered in black-ground chinoiserie silk, on notched cabriole legs, stamped JENNENS & BETTRIDGE/LONDON/BIRMM, all stamped JENNENS & BETTRIDGE, six stamped TR twice, three seats stamped TR, two seats lacking and one covered in red silk, variously numbered, the backs with registration marks for August 10th 1844 (8)

Lot Essay

In 1816, Jennens and Bettridge took over the Birmingham works of
Henry Clay (d.1812) who had taken out a patent for papier mâché in 1772. This patent expired in 1802 and similar productions such as
trays, tea caddies etc. by rival factories became widespread. Jennens and Bettridge took out their own patent for 'ornamenting papier
mâché with pearl shell' in 1825 and, as 'Japanners in Ordinary to
His Majesty', their business flourished, reaching its peak with the Great Exhibition and the opening of branches in New York and Paris in the 1850's.

A pair of side chairs by Bettridge & Co. were sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1986, lot 30.
A very similar chair, with caned seat, is illustrated in S.S.DeVoe, English Papier Mâché of the Georgian and Victorian Periods, Middletown, Connecticut, 1971, fig.177.

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