ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS

Details

A PAIR OF REGENCY BRASS-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BERGERES
Attributed to Gillows
Each with a buttoned leather padded back, sides and seat covered in dark-red Morocco leather and oil-cloth, the scrolled back flanked by downscrolled arms with cornucopia supports, above a reeded seatrail, on sunk-panelled sabre legs with brass caps and castors, with pencil sums on the underside, the back feet with repairs, with batten carrying-holes and original webbing, the leather upholstery original, the oil-cloth probably late 19th Century, one with paper label inscribed '3', one seat and two sides torn (2)

Provenance

Almost certainly supplied to Beriah Botfield, Esq. (1768-1813) for Norton Hall, Daventry, Northamptonshire and by descent to his son
Beriah Botfield, Esq. (1807-1863), Norton Hall and by whom bequeathed to the Thynne family.

Literature

1863 Norton Hall Inventory, Dining-Room, '2 large carved mahogany easy Chairs in red morocco 6 carved ditto Armchairs 10 ditto without Arms'.
1919 Norton Hall Inventory, p. 16, Dining Room, 'A suite of mahogany furniture scroll pattern with twisted rails upholstered in red morocco comprising: 10 Chairs. 5 Arm chairs with carved arms. 2 Easy chairs. A foot stool.'
1942 Norton Hall Inventory, Schedule C Dining Room, 'A suite of mahogany dining-chairs carved cornucopiae supports - Two easy chairs, five armchairs, ten small chairs and two foot stools 60.0.0.'

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

These bergeres form part of a suite that is likely to have been commissioned by Beriah Botfield Senior (1768-1813) shortly after his marriage in 1806. They are designed in the French antique style in keeping with the adjoining Drawing Room furniture (see lot 423). The bergeres have Grecian lyre-scrolled backs, which are hollowed as for a French bolster, in the 'Grecian sofa' manner, while their Ionic-volute arms are supported by fruit-issuing 'cornucopiae' or horns-of-plenty, symbolising the presence of the kindly harvest and summer deity Ceres. Such ornament recalls the Roman adage: 'Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus' (without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus will starve'). The suite, comprising these fireside bergeres, six armchairs and ten side chairs, was upholstered in red morocco leather and supplied together with a dining-table that was listed in 1863 as 'A 5 ft mahogany dining Table in 3 parts on pillars & claws & 2 loose leaves'. It accompanied 'A 7 ft mahogany & satinwood Sideboard on 2 columns & plinth'.
The suite (lots 320 and 421), to which these bergeres belong, was probably supplied by Gillows of London and Lancaster. Both Beriah Botfield Senior's brother Thomas, and his son's names appear in the Gillows archives and there is a sketch, dated 1808, for a closely related dining-chair in the Gillows' Estimate Sketch Books.

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