Lot Essay
Carlton Towers is the ancient home of the Stapleton family, who in 1840 successfully claimed the Beaumont barony, extinct since 1507. The house was much altered during the long tenure of Thomas Stapleton from 1750 to 1821. He continued the process started by his father of modernising the Jacobean interiors and from 1770 built the huge east wing which was again altered for the 9th Lord Beaumonts in the 1870s, the exterior by E. W. Pugin and the interior by J. F. Bentley. It is historically interesting that these chairs, from a large suite of twelve armchairs, two window seats and two sofas which were almost certainly commissioned for Thomas Stapleton's house, were overstuffed and upholstered in the existing velvet prior to 1854. Eight of the chairs and two window seats (which have slightly different fretwork, as does one of the settees, lot 44) are listed in the Library on the south front (now part of the Picture Gallery) in an inventory (p. 52) taken on the death of the 8th Lord Beaumont entitled Catalogue of All the Furniture and Effects in Carlton Hall, Selby, 1854. The two sofas are listed on page 48. The inventory reads:
8 Mahogany Easy Chairs with stuff'd pad Arms & Seats & backs covered in crimson Utricht (sic) velvet & crimson silk fringe & gold & the frames of the Sofa to match Do carved fret work and brass nails in do as finished & on castors
The design of the central part of the stretchers relates to that on the left hand 'French chair' in a design by Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director, 1st ed., 1754, pl. XVII. A roughly equivalent design in the 3rd edition of 1763, pl. XIX, is already plainer with an apparently upholstered front seat-rail and solid stretchers. It is interesting however that the right leg of the relevant 1754 chair is square, solid and carved with as simple blind fretwork as its 1763 equivalent. The slightly-squashed serpentine ovals flanking the central fret on the stretcher of the present lot seem to be a development of the popular eared oval that appears in the same place in pl. XVII in the 1754 edition and, for example, on the legs of a design probably by Robert Manwaring, pl. 15 in Genteel Houshold Furniture in the Present Taste, 2nd ed., circa 1765. (Cf. the frieze of the pair of chairs sold in these Rooms, 4 July 1990, lot 70). A library chair with the same motif was sold in these Rooms, 20 October 1986, lot 40.
The Greek key fret was a popular architectural motif with Inigo Jones and William Kent. It also appears on the legs, frame and stretchers of an open armchair designed by Kent, illustrated in John Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, London, 1744, pl. 43. It is perhaps more significant that it appears as a very bold base frieze on half of a design for a clothes chest in Chippendale, op.cit., pl. CI (1754) and pl. CXXVIII (1763).
This pair and the following lot are the last remaining chairs from the set; two pairs were sold in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 238 and 239; another two pairs and the two settees were sold in these Rooms, 9 July 1992, lots 41, 42, 43 and 44.
8 Mahogany Easy Chairs with stuff'd pad Arms & Seats & backs covered in crimson Utricht (sic) velvet & crimson silk fringe & gold & the frames of the Sofa to match Do carved fret work and brass nails in do as finished & on castors
The design of the central part of the stretchers relates to that on the left hand 'French chair' in a design by Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director, 1st ed., 1754, pl. XVII. A roughly equivalent design in the 3rd edition of 1763, pl. XIX, is already plainer with an apparently upholstered front seat-rail and solid stretchers. It is interesting however that the right leg of the relevant 1754 chair is square, solid and carved with as simple blind fretwork as its 1763 equivalent. The slightly-squashed serpentine ovals flanking the central fret on the stretcher of the present lot seem to be a development of the popular eared oval that appears in the same place in pl. XVII in the 1754 edition and, for example, on the legs of a design probably by Robert Manwaring, pl. 15 in Genteel Houshold Furniture in the Present Taste, 2nd ed., circa 1765. (Cf. the frieze of the pair of chairs sold in these Rooms, 4 July 1990, lot 70). A library chair with the same motif was sold in these Rooms, 20 October 1986, lot 40.
The Greek key fret was a popular architectural motif with Inigo Jones and William Kent. It also appears on the legs, frame and stretchers of an open armchair designed by Kent, illustrated in John Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, London, 1744, pl. 43. It is perhaps more significant that it appears as a very bold base frieze on half of a design for a clothes chest in Chippendale, op.cit., pl. CI (1754) and pl. CXXVIII (1763).
This pair and the following lot are the last remaining chairs from the set; two pairs were sold in these Rooms, 5 December 1991, lot 238 and 239; another two pairs and the two settees were sold in these Rooms, 9 July 1992, lots 41, 42, 43 and 44.