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Lot Essay
The heraldic hall chairs, with elegant herm-tapered legs, are sculpted in the George III Roman fashion with Love's shell-scallops radiating from 'Myddelton' crested medallions; while bas-relief libation-plates (patera) enrich the 'tablet' seats antique-fluted rails. In the 1770s related medallion-backed and pateraed seats were supplied to George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton to harmonise with the antique decoration that had been introduced at Pepper Harrow, Sussex by George 111's Rome-trained architect Sir William Chambers (A pair sold by a Family Trust at Christie's 21 April 1994, lot 304). The latters' pattern corresponds to that of 'Sifer' painted chairs listed in 1786 at Broadlands, Hampshire and which, like these 'Myddelton' chairs, can be attributed to the Soho cabinet-makers Messrs Mayhew and Ince (see: H. Roberts, The Ince and Mayhew Connection; Part 1, Country Life, January 1981, p.289, fig. 4).
In the 1795 Inventory, the Hall at Chirk was furnished with the Mayhew and Ince 'Mahogany Hall Chairs with Elbows 6.12.0', which remain on loan to the National Trust. These chairs, although stylistically dating from circa 1780-85, are painted with the arms of Biddulph quartering Myddelton with Myddelton quartering others for Robert Myddelton-Biddulph (d. 1814) and his wife Charlotte Myddelton-Biddulph (d. 1843), who married in 1801.
By 1778 the Hall had been transformed into a Neo-Classical entrance hall 'ornamented with pillars and floored with white stone, cut in the figure of diamonds, which are intermixed with squares of black marble,' and this would have been at odds with the 11 Gothick hall chairs supplied by Mayhew and Ince in the early 1760s. However, the most probable hypotheses is that these hall chairs were commissioned by Richard Myddelton (d.1795) around 1780 for his London house in Albermarle Street, and the armorial was subsequently painted in 1801 following the inclusion of Biddulph to the family name. Certainly from the family papers, we know that Thos Stanton charged 6/- for Cart for Furniture from London to Chirk on 5 December 1843. It is just conceivable, however, although unlikely, that these may be the '4 Chairs and 1 Smoking Chair 1.1.0' recorded in the 1795 Inventory in Mr Myddelton's Dressing Room.
In the 1795 Inventory, the Hall at Chirk was furnished with the Mayhew and Ince 'Mahogany Hall Chairs with Elbows 6.12.0', which remain on loan to the National Trust. These chairs, although stylistically dating from circa 1780-85, are painted with the arms of Biddulph quartering Myddelton with Myddelton quartering others for Robert Myddelton-Biddulph (d. 1814) and his wife Charlotte Myddelton-Biddulph (d. 1843), who married in 1801.
By 1778 the Hall had been transformed into a Neo-Classical entrance hall 'ornamented with pillars and floored with white stone, cut in the figure of diamonds, which are intermixed with squares of black marble,' and this would have been at odds with the 11 Gothick hall chairs supplied by Mayhew and Ince in the early 1760s. However, the most probable hypotheses is that these hall chairs were commissioned by Richard Myddelton (d.1795) around 1780 for his London house in Albermarle Street, and the armorial was subsequently painted in 1801 following the inclusion of Biddulph to the family name. Certainly from the family papers, we know that Thos Stanton charged 6/- for Cart for Furniture from London to Chirk on 5 December 1843. It is just conceivable, however, although unlikely, that these may be the '4 Chairs and 1 Smoking Chair 1.1.0' recorded in the 1795 Inventory in Mr Myddelton's Dressing Room.