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Lot Essay
The chairs, with Grecian cippus-altar crestings supported on reeded columnettes are designed in the French 'antique' manner introduced in the late 18th Century by Francois Hervé (d. 1796), the Paris-trained chair-maker, under the direction of Henry Holland (d. 1806), architect to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. A pair of caned chairs with related backs as well as the pearled seatrails and reed-banded legs was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 18 November 1993, lot 33. Another related cane-back chair surmounted by a lozenged-tablet is illustrated in F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 33. In particular these chairs relate to those supplied in the 1790's for the Boudoir designed by Holland at Southill, Bedfordshire (ibid., p. 36).
A bergere and armchair of this pattern may have formed part of the furnishings of Claremont, Surrey, which was at various times the home of Princess Charlotte (d. 1817) and Prince Leopold (d.1865), Queen Marie-Amelie (d.1866), and the Duchess of Albany (d. 1922), illustrated in O.Brackett and H.Clifford Smith, English Furniture Illustrated, London, 1950, p. 224.
A bergere and armchair of this pattern may have formed part of the furnishings of Claremont, Surrey, which was at various times the home of Princess Charlotte (d. 1817) and Prince Leopold (d.1865), Queen Marie-Amelie (d.1866), and the Duchess of Albany (d. 1922), illustrated in O.Brackett and H.Clifford Smith, English Furniture Illustrated, London, 1950, p. 224.