ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HALLETT, CIRCA 1730, RERAILED

The detailing on the leg of this stool closely relates to a suite supplied by William Hallett to Arthur Lord Viscount Irwin, delivered on August 9th, 1735. Shortly after Lord Irwin's death the following year the suite was taken to the family home, Temple Newsam, where it remained there until the dispersal sale in 1922 and was purchased by Frank Partridge. Of notable similarity between the suite and the present stool are the shell and bellflower carving, the distinctly spaced gadrooned spandrels and the unusual ring to the ankle above the claw-and-ball foot. The suite was illustrated, along with the original invoice, in C. Gilbert, 'Newly-Discovered Furniture by William Hallett', The Connoisseur, December 1964, pp.224-225. There were no stools listed in the invoice. A settee again displaying a very similar form of leg was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 15 November 1996, lot 29.