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Lot Essay
These chairs, with ribbon-guilloche rails and palm-wrapped, antique-fluted and reeded legs share many features with the seat furniture supplied to Robert Child at Osterley Park, Middlesex, by the Berkeley Square cabinetmaking firm of William and John Linnell. Their form corresponds to medallion-backed bedroom chairs designed in 1777 by the architect Robert Adam ( M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1982 fig H/3a and G/1) and also relates to a pattern by Linnell circa 1775-1780 for a suite upholstered in Gobelin tapestry, designed to accompanying wall-hangings featuring medallion vignettes by Frangois Boucher inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses or 'Loves of the Gods' (illustrated in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, vol. II, p. 47, fig. 92 & 94).
An identical pair of chairs probably from the same suite was sold from a private collection in these Rooms, 12 April 1996, lot 27, whilst the matching settee from the same suite is illustrated in P. Johnson, The Phillips Guide to Chairs, 1989, p. 88.
An identical pair of chairs probably from the same suite was sold from a private collection in these Rooms, 12 April 1996, lot 27, whilst the matching settee from the same suite is illustrated in P. Johnson, The Phillips Guide to Chairs, 1989, p. 88.