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Lot Essay
The Grecian-scrolled bergere has winged 'Nike' arms emerging from Roman acanthus, in the antique arabesque manner; and these victory figures appear on an armchair designed by the connoisseur Thomas Hope, for his Duchess Street mansion, illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pl. 59). Its Bacchic ram-monopodia also derive from this publication, and appear on an Egyptian tripod-stand, whose sphynx-capped pillars are likely to derive from a Parisian console-table pattern issued in Tableau general du goût des Modes, 1797 (cf., Hope, pl. 22).
The present bergere pattern corresponds to that of a green-bronzed and cane-seated armchair, that was acquired from Messrs. Pratt & Son by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1939 (R. Edwards, History of the English Chair, London, 1951, no. 116; R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1954, vol. I, p. 308, fig. 268; and E. T. Joy, English Furniture 1800-1851, London 1977, p. 74).
The present bergere pattern corresponds to that of a green-bronzed and cane-seated armchair, that was acquired from Messrs. Pratt & Son by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1939 (R. Edwards, History of the English Chair, London, 1951, no. 116; R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1954, vol. I, p. 308, fig. 268; and E. T. Joy, English Furniture 1800-1851, London 1977, p. 74).