Lot Essay
The 2nd Earl Grosvenor purchased the lease of Gloucester House in Upper Grosvenor Street in 1805 for £20,000 and immediately turned to William Pordern to redecorate the house between 1807-8 - although with an eye for economy, crimson damask from Eaton being reused on the walls. Designed as a Gallery for his newly assembled picture Collection, Grosvenor House was described as 'a mass of damask, velvet, gilding, statues and pictures and magnificence of all sorts, beyond all powers of description and imagination'. Subsequently remodelled by Thomas Cundy and Anthony Salvin, these chairs almost certainly date from the 1870's remodelling of the principal rooms by Henry Clutton, with J.G. Crace responsible for the redecoration.