CIRCA 1775, ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN LINNELL

The French features of these chairs, with their oval backs, serpentine seatrails and turned legs relate to designs produced by Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam in the 1760s and 70s. The form of this pair corresponds to the medallion-backed bedroom chairs designed in 1777 by Robert Adam (see Peter Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 220) and supplied to Robert Child at Osterley Park, Middlesex, by the Berkeley Square cabinetmaking firm of William and John Linnell. The incurved arm supports and ball ended terminals of these chairs are is characteristic of the work of John Linnell. A design for a similar chair, having square rather than turned tapering legs, appears in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol II, pl. 87. A pair of chairs of related character were sold from The Murnaghan Collection, Christie's South Kensington, 14 October 1999, lot 158. A further set of ten comparable armchairs was sold anonymously, Christie's King Street, 5 December 1991, lot 245.