POSSIBLY BY WRIGHT & MANSFIELD

This settee and pair of armchairs may have been executed by the 19th Century firm of Wright and Mansfield, specialists in the 'Adams' style of the late 18th century in which there was a revival of interest in the third quarter of the 19th century. One of the earliest enthusiasts for this genre was the 1st Lord Tweedmouth, who, in 1856 bought Guisachan, Aberdeenshire, and commissioned Wright & Mansfield to redecorate it. He also commissioned the firm to decorate their London apartments at Brook House on Park Lane and a photograph of the 2nd Lady Tweedmouth's boudoir shows seat furniture in the Louis XVI Henry Holland manner (J. Cornforth, London Interiors, London, 2000, p. 130-131). Wright & Mansfield were described by the Cabinet-Maker in 1886 as 'The leaders of that pleasing fashion which has happily brought back into our houses many of the charming shapes of the renowned eighteenth century cabinet-makers'. The model for this particular suite is likely to have been a caned settee with patera-enriched and fluted seat rail and top rail and fluted tapering arms and legs, illustrated in P. Macquoid & R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, rev. ed., vol. III, p. 101, fig. 72, formerly in the collection of Edward Dent.

A set of eighteen dining-chairs, seventeen stamped by Wright & Mansfield was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 15 June 2000, lot 25 (£34,075).