A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS by Thomas Chippendale, each with inverted heart-shaped padded back carved with guilloche and headed by ribbon-tied laurel-swags, with padded arm-rests on beaded scrolled supports filled with laurel, the serpentine seat above a laurel-carved apron centred by rectangular blocks and on stepped turned feet with opposing laurel and toupie bases, one with traces of original gilt and both covered in pink floral silk, with exposed back struts, cramp-cuts and batten carrying-holes, one with old exposed repair to base of one arm (2)

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS by Thomas Chippendale, each with inverted heart-shaped padded back carved with guilloche and headed by ribbon-tied laurel-swags, with padded arm-rests on beaded scrolled supports filled with laurel, the serpentine seat above a laurel-carved apron centred by rectangular blocks and on stepped turned feet with opposing laurel and toupie bases, one with traces of original gilt and both covered in pink floral silk, with exposed back struts, cramp-cuts and batten carrying-holes, one with old exposed repair to base of one arm (2)

Provenance

Supplied to Sir Penistone Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (1748-1819), for the Saloon of Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, circa 1773
Thence by descent to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Walter Kerr, G.C.B., Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, sold Messrs. Foster house sale, 9 March 1923, lot 362
Acquired at that sale by Sir Charles Nall-Cairn, Bt., 1st Lord Brocket (d.1934)
Thence by descent at Brocket Hall

Literature

H. Avray Tipping, Country Life, vol. LVIII, 8 July 1925, p. 96
H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, Period VI, vol.I, London, 1926, pp. 19-21, figs. 30-31 and 33
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 263 and vol. II, p. 11, fig. 21 and p. 109, fig. 186

Lot Essay

The Brocket Saloon chairs conform suitably to what Christopher Gilbert has identified as the 'uniform character' of Chippendale's chair designs of the 1770s. Although he never repeated twice an exact decorative permutation, the basic arrangement of elements is common among most provenanced suites of this date. These chairs have the constructional characteristics that has been identified as characteristic of the workshop, including the exposed back-struts, cramp-cuts and batten-holes (see: Gilbert, op. cit, vol. I, p. 41)

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