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Lot Essay
Inspired by fashionable 'French chair' patterns popularised in London in the late 1750s, these remarkable small settees and bergeres (lot 102) belong to what must have been an extensive and important suite of seat-furniture, of which at least four further armchairs are recorded. Undoubtedly commissioned for a specific architectural interior, perhaps a rotunda, which dictated both their extremely unusual shape with rounded back and the rare arched toprail - a feature apparently only seen on Louis XV bergeres of the 1750's but hitherto not apparently known in England - they were almost certainly conceived for a room decorated with French 'pittoresque' boiserie panelling of complementary shape. Of this suite, one pair of armchairs was sold in these Rooms, 6 July 1995, lot 133, another was illustrated in H. Cescinsky, The Old World House, New York, vol. II, 1924, p.107, and the fourth is illustrated in C. Claxton-Stevens and S. Whittington, English Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1983, p.40.
Probably the earliest chair design published in England that incorporates acanthus foliage emerging from a Venus scallop-shell is one of those in Gaetano Brunetti's Sixty Different Types of Ornament, published in London in 1736 (see: E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 99). The type was later developed in patterns published by Thomas Chippendale, including one in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 3rd. ed., 1762, pl. XXIII (see White, op.cit., p. 101).
A 'burjair' chair of a similar type, on which the ornament is reduced almost to the shells alone, was supplied in the late 1750s to Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness for Hornby Castle, Yorkshire. Holderness was an early patron of the Soho firm of Samuel Norman (d.1768) and James Whittle (d.1759). Their partnership began in 1755 and they are thought to have supplied the Hornby Castle 'burjairs', one of which was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 9 July 1992, lot 92. Further evidence that chairs of this type were being produced by the most fashionable London chair-makers in the late 1750s is provided by a suite of which the larger part remains in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Two armchairs from the suite were sold from the collection of the late 1st Viscount Leverhulme, The Hill, Hampstead, Anderson Galleries, New York, 13 February 1926 (=5th day), lots 501-502. The frames of the Leverhulme suite of chairs are of very similar type and had originally come from what was probably the most distinguished series of English rococo interiors in the French manner, those at Chesterfield House, London. Certainly the furniture at Chesterfield House was of the highest quality and chairs of this type would have been supplied by the best London makers, possibly Whittle and Norman themselves.
A further armchair of this overall pattern, but without scrolled legs, was sold in these Rooms, 12 November 1998, lot 177.
An entry in Sir John Ward's account books records their purchase:-
April 27th (1909) Pair of Small Chippendale sofas to match chairs p.10 52 10 Bartlett & Collins Brighton, with the comment under the Remarks column make up set of four.
Probably the earliest chair design published in England that incorporates acanthus foliage emerging from a Venus scallop-shell is one of those in Gaetano Brunetti's Sixty Different Types of Ornament, published in London in 1736 (see: E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 99). The type was later developed in patterns published by Thomas Chippendale, including one in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 3rd. ed., 1762, pl. XXIII (see White, op.cit., p. 101).
A 'burjair' chair of a similar type, on which the ornament is reduced almost to the shells alone, was supplied in the late 1750s to Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness for Hornby Castle, Yorkshire. Holderness was an early patron of the Soho firm of Samuel Norman (d.1768) and James Whittle (d.1759). Their partnership began in 1755 and they are thought to have supplied the Hornby Castle 'burjairs', one of which was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 9 July 1992, lot 92. Further evidence that chairs of this type were being produced by the most fashionable London chair-makers in the late 1750s is provided by a suite of which the larger part remains in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Two armchairs from the suite were sold from the collection of the late 1st Viscount Leverhulme, The Hill, Hampstead, Anderson Galleries, New York, 13 February 1926 (=5th day), lots 501-502. The frames of the Leverhulme suite of chairs are of very similar type and had originally come from what was probably the most distinguished series of English rococo interiors in the French manner, those at Chesterfield House, London. Certainly the furniture at Chesterfield House was of the highest quality and chairs of this type would have been supplied by the best London makers, possibly Whittle and Norman themselves.
A further armchair of this overall pattern, but without scrolled legs, was sold in these Rooms, 12 November 1998, lot 177.
An entry in Sir John Ward's account books records their purchase:-
April 27th (1909) Pair of Small Chippendale sofas to match chairs p.10 52 10 Bartlett & Collins Brighton, with the comment under the Remarks column make up set of four.