Lot Essay
This is probably the same stool as one with provenance from Warwick Castle, sold here in 1974 and subsequently illustrated in G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture, London, 1987, p. 36, fig. 2.
This richly carved stool is designed in the late 17th Century antique or arabesque style, with festive amorini perched amongst scrolls of Roman foliage and bearing acanthus-husk garlands and triumphal laurel-wreaths. It relates closely to the work of Thomas Roberts (d. 1714) for the Royal Chair Marylebone Street, who supplied seat Furniture for the Royal palaces from the reign of James II to that of Queen Anne (d. 1714). One of his stools at Hampton Court Palace, with voluted feet and a stretcher inhabited by crown-bearing putti, was supplied in 1689 and is illustrated R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture, vol. 3, London, 1954, p. 171, fig. 24). Amongst the royal perquisites displayed at Warwick Castle is a bed that was supplied for Queen Anne, and it is possibly that this stool is from the same source.
This richly carved stool is designed in the late 17th Century antique or arabesque style, with festive amorini perched amongst scrolls of Roman foliage and bearing acanthus-husk garlands and triumphal laurel-wreaths. It relates closely to the work of Thomas Roberts (d. 1714) for the Royal Chair Marylebone Street, who supplied seat Furniture for the Royal palaces from the reign of James II to that of Queen Anne (d. 1714). One of his stools at Hampton Court Palace, with voluted feet and a stretcher inhabited by crown-bearing putti, was supplied in 1689 and is illustrated R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture, vol. 3, London, 1954, p. 171, fig. 24). Amongst the royal perquisites displayed at Warwick Castle is a bed that was supplied for Queen Anne, and it is possibly that this stool is from the same source.