Two from a suite of 'Two Settee's, Twelve Chair's' and 'Four Stools' in the 'Velvet Drawing Room' 'Eleven Chair's' in the 'Green Velvett Bedchamber' and 'Ten Chair's' in the 'Vandyke Dressing Room', these chairs were commissioned by Sir Robert Walpole to line the walls of the three rooms in the State Apartment at Houghton. With their silk-velvet upholstery trimmed with gold braid, they were conceived to correspond with the hangings of William Kent's (d. 1748) magnificent state bed, the walls being further dressed with green silk-velvet. Although no definitive account survives, the chairs were almost certainly supplied around the end of 1731. As Lord Hervey noted in July 1731, the State rooms were not yet finished but 'the furniture is to be green velvet and tapestry'. However, at the end of the same year, when Walpole entertained the Duke of Lorraine, the green velvet bed had not been completed, and he instead slept in the needlework bed that had been supplied to Sir Robert after his appointment as Knight of the Garter in 1726

The bed was conceived as a Palladian Temple of Venus and presents the goddess's triumphal 'scallop-shell' chariot in its headboard pediment, a theme reiterated in the tapestry hangings, depicting the History of Venus from Ovid's Metamorphoses. These chairs, upholstered in the colour sacred to the Nature Goddess, bear her scallop-shell badge emerging from the Roman acanthus that wraps the sides of their serpentined and antique-stippled frames. Their bacchic-lion monopodia are embellished with ribbon-tied garlands suspended from the rings of love-tamed lion-heads, while the front rails are decorated with festive satyr-masks, that recall the bacchic-mask of the Houghton table pattern provided by Kent in 1731 and illustrated in John Vardy's Some Designs of Mr Inigo Jones and Mr William Kent, 1744, pl. 41. Such tables were inspired by the style of 'antique' or Roman table, which Kent illustrated in Alexander Pope's 1728 translation of Homer's Odyssey (M. Wilson, William Kent, London, 1984, p. 112, fig. 34). Kent's involvement in the genesis of this suite is revealed both by its correspondence with the architectural ornament, the lion's heads relating closely to those of the Marble Parlour door entablatures, and with the Saloon suite, almost certainly carved in situ by James Roberts, which shares the unusual entrelac-enriched verticals which appear on the armchairs of this suite (J. Cornforth, op. cit., p. 107, fig. 9). The use of oil-gilding, so characteristic of both the Houghton suites and Kent's decorative schemes, together with the close proximity between the carving of the seat-rails and that of the architectural motifs, may conceivably point to the involvement of specialist craftsmen working at the house, such as Mr Cooper, who was paid #1 12s. 6d. 'for leaf gold for Mr Kent'

Sir Robert's chairs were probably upholstered at the house by Thomas Roberts of 'The Royal Chair', Marylebone Street, who by 1729 had supplied furnishings to the value of #1,420 8s. 7½d. ( Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 754), while their trimmings formed part of the account for #1,129 3s. 11d. submitted by Messrs. Turner, Hill and Pitter (J. Cornforth, op. cit., p. 107). The same pattern of chairs lined the walls of the entire state apartment and, like the 'eagle' suite in the Parlour, can be attributed to Benjamin Goodison (see lot 130)

It is interesting to note, however, that related furnishings were almost certainly supplied circa 1736-7 by William Bradshaw (d. 1775), 'Tapissier' of 59-60 Greek Street, Soho for the 2nd Earl Stanhope's Chevening House, Kent (illustrated in R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, London, 1955, p. 146, figs. 52-3), while certain elements appear in the seat furniture at Arundel Castle, Sussex (S. Jervis, 'Furniture at Arundel Castle', Connoisseur, March 1978, pp. 203-16). In particular, the lion's mask terminals of this suites' armchairs are related to those in fig. M, while the ribbon-tied knee and agressive lion's hock back leg appears on the side chairs from Arundel (illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, op. cit, p. 268, fig. 132). The Arundel chairs were almost certainly supplied to either Thomas, 8th Duke of Norfolk (d. 1732) or Edward, 9th Duke (d. 1777), who embarked on an extensive building programme from circa 1716 at both Arundel Castle and Worksop Manor, under the direction of Walpole's architect James Gibbs (d. 1754)
THE GREEN SILK-VELVET UPHOLSTERY
Although supplied for adjoining rooms in the principal state apartment, there are marked differences in the upholstery of this suite, enabling one to determine the specific room for which they were supplied. John Cornforth has suggested that the explanation of the colour variation between the celadon/olive green of the great bed and the blue green of these chairs may lie in the undated estimate for the amount of velvet needed for the three rooms, the Green Velvet Drawing Room, State Bedchamber and Dressing Room. 521¾ yards in all was needed and there were 205 yards in hand leaving a shortfall of 316¾ yards. It is probable that they were not able to achieve exactly the same colour in the second weaving. Of the suite, 'Two Settee's, Twelve Chair's' and 'Four Stools' are recorded in the 'Velvet Drawing Room' in the 1745 inventory. They are easily identifiable by their lighter olive-green silk-velvet and material, rather than metal-thread braid. The description was expanded in the 1792 inventory:-

No. 47 Green Drawing Room/Twelve Chairs Stuffed & covered with green/velvet gilt frames & serge cases/Two Sophas finished to correspond/Four Stools en suite

The 1745 inventory of the 'Vandyke Dressing Room', so-called after the tapestries reputedly acquired by Sir Robert's father, lists 'Ten Chair's', while a further 'Eleven Chair's' are recorded in the 'Green Velvett Bedchamber'. In 1792, the entry reads:-

No. 45 Dressing Room adjoining
Six chairs & 2 Elbow (ditto) stuffed and
covered with rich green velvet trimmed
with gold lace carved & gilt frames
& green serge cases
No. 46 Principal Bedchamber
An Easy chair & cushion stuffed & covered with
rich green velvet, trimmed with lace
gilt frame & green serge cases
Twelve Chamber Chairs stuffed & covered
with green velvet trimmed with gold
lace gilt frames & serge cases to
correspond
A set of 12 Green Serge Chair Cases & 2 Sopha do to Cabinet Room

Of these remaining eighteen side chairs, two armchairs and one wing-armchair, all except for the set of 'six chairs' listed in the Dressing Room (the present lot and lot 132 comprising four of them) are covered in the lighter green velvet of the State Bed. Moreover, the design of the gold-thread braid of the 'Vandyke Dressing Room' chairs displays a subtle but distinct difference to those of the State Bedchamber. While the braid of the Dressing Room chairs displays a repeating dot-centred lozenge motif, that on the State Bed and its corresponding chairs shows an alternating hexagon and lozenge pattern, with only the lozenges being centred by dots (illustrated in J. Fowler and J. Cornforth, English Decoration in the 18th Century, London, 1974, p. 80, fig. XIII). It is possible to conclude, therefore, that the 'Vandyke Dressing Room' was originally furnished with the set of six dark green silk-velvet upholstered side chairs (including the present pair and lot 132), the pair of olive-green upholstered open armchairs (one illustrated in J. Cornforth, op. cit., p. 107, fig. 9) and the single olive-green upholstered wing armchair (illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, op. cit., 1, p. 268, fig. 131 and in R. Edwards, op. cit, p. 140, fig.92)