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Lot Essay
The design of this metamorphic armchair library steps corresponds very closely to the design first published in Ackermann's Repository of Arts, in July 1811 and captioned 'This ingenious piece of furniture is manufactured at Messrs. Morgan and Sanders's, Catherine-St. Strand' (P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture & Interiors, Marlborough, 1984, p. 60, pl. 29). This chair was 'considered the best and handsomest article ever yet invented, where two complete pieces of furniture are combined in one - an elegant and truly comfortable armchair and a set of library steps'.
A closely related chair supplied by Thomas Weeks of Tichborne Street was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 14 June 2001, lot 104 (£27,025; illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1983, p. 459) and another by Morgan and Sanders is at Trinity College, Oxford (R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. II, p. 291, fig. 15).
A closely related chair supplied by Thomas Weeks of Tichborne Street was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 14 June 2001, lot 104 (£27,025; illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1983, p. 459) and another by Morgan and Sanders is at Trinity College, Oxford (R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. II, p. 291, fig. 15).