.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The armorials are those of Orkney quartering Hamilton and Douglas for George, Viscount Kirkwall, K.C.M.G., later 6th Earl of Orkney (1827-1889). The painted armorial decoration dates from between 1875 when Lord Kirkwall was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and 1877 when he suceeded his father as Earl of Orkney. It is possible that the bench had always been in the same family, and the armorials were merely updated.
This handsome mahogany banqueting-hall seat is designed in tripartite form with paired palmflower-finialed pilasters and antique hermed feet corresponding to a seat pattern that is likely to have been executed in 1774 for Harewood House, Yorkshire by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 373-375). The same features, together with 'Roman' voluted and palm-wrapped 'truss' arms, appear on armorial banqueting-hall seats that were supplied to John Chetwynd, 1st Earl Talbot (d. 1793), following his inheritance of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire in 1785. The ornament of these 'Talbot' seats largely derived from hall chair patterns of 1759 issued in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762 (pl. XVII). An Ingestre seat now at Kenwood, London, is illustrated in J. Bryant, London's Country House Collections, London, 1993, p. 135. In addition the old English or Gothic ornament of this present seat, such as the flowered quatrefoils and cusped tablet framing its armorials, also featured in patterns in the Director, such as the design for a bookcase dated 1761 (op. cit, pl. C). It is possible that this present seat, which is likely to have been executed in the 1780s, was designed by Thomas Chippendale Junior (d. 1822), who was no doubt largely reponsible for the design of the Harewood hall chairs.
This handsome mahogany banqueting-hall seat is designed in tripartite form with paired palmflower-finialed pilasters and antique hermed feet corresponding to a seat pattern that is likely to have been executed in 1774 for Harewood House, Yorkshire by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 373-375). The same features, together with 'Roman' voluted and palm-wrapped 'truss' arms, appear on armorial banqueting-hall seats that were supplied to John Chetwynd, 1st Earl Talbot (d. 1793), following his inheritance of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire in 1785. The ornament of these 'Talbot' seats largely derived from hall chair patterns of 1759 issued in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762 (pl. XVII). An Ingestre seat now at Kenwood, London, is illustrated in J. Bryant, London's Country House Collections, London, 1993, p. 135. In addition the old English or Gothic ornament of this present seat, such as the flowered quatrefoils and cusped tablet framing its armorials, also featured in patterns in the Director, such as the design for a bookcase dated 1761 (op. cit, pl. C). It is possible that this present seat, which is likely to have been executed in the 1780s, was designed by Thomas Chippendale Junior (d. 1822), who was no doubt largely reponsible for the design of the Harewood hall chairs.