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Lot Essay
The trailing grape clusters, symbols of Bacchus and festivity, carved on the knees relates to that on a set of dining-chairs supplied in circa 1770 to Lady Louisa Connolly (d.1821) for the Dining Room at Castletown, Co. Kildare (The Georgian Society, Records of Eighteenth-Century Domestic Architecture and Decoration in Ireland, Dublin, 1943, vol.V, pl.XXVII). The similarity to the Castletown chairs, in combination with the ruffled brackets and tall squared paw feet, may indicate an Irish provenance for this settee.
The settee appears to be en suite with a 'grandfather' and matching 'grandmother' wing armchair, both illustrated in M. Harris & Sons, The English Chair, 1937, pp.110-111, pl.XXXVIII and XXXIX.
Another settee with virtually identical legs but Vitruvian scroll rail, almost certainly by the same maker, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 13 December 1986, lot 152 ($22,000). A set of eight Irish dining-chairs with virtually identical carved knees was sold, the Property of a Gentleman, Christie's London, 17 April 1997, lot 155 (£69,500); and a pair of similarly carved library chairs in the collection at Temple Newsam is illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol.I, p.90, no.78.
The settee appears to be en suite with a 'grandfather' and matching 'grandmother' wing armchair, both illustrated in M. Harris & Sons, The English Chair, 1937, pp.110-111, pl.XXXVIII and XXXIX.
Another settee with virtually identical legs but Vitruvian scroll rail, almost certainly by the same maker, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 13 December 1986, lot 152 ($22,000). A set of eight Irish dining-chairs with virtually identical carved knees was sold, the Property of a Gentleman, Christie's London, 17 April 1997, lot 155 (£69,500); and a pair of similarly carved library chairs in the collection at Temple Newsam is illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol.I, p.90, no.78.