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Lot Essay
A pair to this chair was sold anonymously, Christie's New York, 19 April 2001, lot 278 ($52,875)).
The bergere was almost certainly made and supplied by the St. Martin's Lane firm established by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779). Its design reflects the emerging design influence of around 1770 of Thomas Chippendale Junior (1749-1822), to harmonise with the 'Roman' style of architecture introduced by the Rome-trained architects Sir William Chambers (d.1796) and Robert Adam (d.1792).
Chippendale Junior, who later published a pattern-book entitled Sketches of Ornament, 1779, and who styled himself 'Upholsterer and Cabinet-Maker to the Duke of Gloucester', may also have designed the similar seat furniture that was supplied for the Duke's London house and shown off by him to Thomas Mouat in 1775 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 235). George III also commissioned similar chairs for Windsor Castle (ibid., fig. 185). The form of this bergere's arched back would be intended to match the fashionable 'Roman' medallion-back 'cabriolet' chairs featured in designs sent to Burton Constable, Yorkshire (ibid., fig. 202).
This bergere's cresting displays a 'poetic' flowered and laurel-wreathed libation-patera within a pearled ribbon-guilloche; while other pearled and sunflowered paterae enrich its antique-fluted seat-rail, and its arms are wrapped by palms. Similar bergeres, displaying 'Apollo' palm-flowers, were provided for the actor David Garrick's 'Apollo' Drawing Room at the Adelphi, which Adam had designed around 1770 (ibid., fig. 160, and M. Snodin and J. Styles, Design and the Decorative Arts, London, 2001, fig. 48).
The firm was also employed by the 1st Viscount Melbourne to furnish related seat furniture for Brocket Hall, Northamptonshire; as well as for his Piccadilly House in London, which had been built to Chambers' designs between 1771 and 1774 (Gilbert, op. cit., fig. 186).
The bergere was almost certainly made and supplied by the St. Martin's Lane firm established by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779). Its design reflects the emerging design influence of around 1770 of Thomas Chippendale Junior (1749-1822), to harmonise with the 'Roman' style of architecture introduced by the Rome-trained architects Sir William Chambers (d.1796) and Robert Adam (d.1792).
Chippendale Junior, who later published a pattern-book entitled Sketches of Ornament, 1779, and who styled himself 'Upholsterer and Cabinet-Maker to the Duke of Gloucester', may also have designed the similar seat furniture that was supplied for the Duke's London house and shown off by him to Thomas Mouat in 1775 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 235). George III also commissioned similar chairs for Windsor Castle (ibid., fig. 185). The form of this bergere's arched back would be intended to match the fashionable 'Roman' medallion-back 'cabriolet' chairs featured in designs sent to Burton Constable, Yorkshire (ibid., fig. 202).
This bergere's cresting displays a 'poetic' flowered and laurel-wreathed libation-patera within a pearled ribbon-guilloche; while other pearled and sunflowered paterae enrich its antique-fluted seat-rail, and its arms are wrapped by palms. Similar bergeres, displaying 'Apollo' palm-flowers, were provided for the actor David Garrick's 'Apollo' Drawing Room at the Adelphi, which Adam had designed around 1770 (ibid., fig. 160, and M. Snodin and J. Styles, Design and the Decorative Arts, London, 2001, fig. 48).
The firm was also employed by the 1st Viscount Melbourne to furnish related seat furniture for Brocket Hall, Northamptonshire; as well as for his Piccadilly House in London, which had been built to Chambers' designs between 1771 and 1774 (Gilbert, op. cit., fig. 186).