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Lot Essay
The library chairs, fitted with squab-cushions in the French manner, formed part of Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath's refurbishments at Longleat. They were made by George Oakley (d. 1841), whose Bond Street 'Manufactory and Magazine for fashionable Furniture' attracted the patronage of George IV when Prince of Wales and Prince Regent. They are conceived as 'Chaise a l'antique' in the Parisian style promoted by Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 and adopted at the same period by Thomas Chippendale Junior. Their ornament evokes the triumph of lyric poetry, with Apollo's sunflower displayed on their palm-flowered 'Klismos' tablet-rails and the poetry deity's chimerical griffin emerging from foliated scrolls on the rails linking the Grecian-scrolled pillars of their backs. They formed part of a large suite of seat-furniture and may have accompanied a library-table. The armchairs were described as six 'large fauteuille Chairs with head tablets highly finished' when the suite was invoiced on 30th October 1812. The armchairs cost £75 12 s, while their 'bordered seat cushions' cost £13 10s. The armchairs were accompanied by a set of ten chairs without arms and a pair of fireside bergere chairs that Oakley called 'Woburn' chairs, and related to a 'Library Fauteuil' pattern with fitted reading-desks on the arms, which George Smith illustrated in his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808 (pl. 42). The present 'fauteuils' were designed en suite with two fireside Grecian sofas, that were invoiced at £80 and described as '2 Elegant Chaise longues formed of Oak and richly ornamented with carvings in the grecian style supported on bronze Castors square stuffd in green morocco leather and finished with silk tufts & Gymp'. Oakley, who had begun business in St. Paul's Church Yard in the 1780s, had entered into partnership with the carver and gilder, John Evans, in 1800.
The use of national oak for Longleat's library furniture reflects an antiquarian association with English furniture of the age of Shakespeare and with the mansion's Elizabethan architecture. Likewise the intricate carving of the rails can also be linked to the contemporary antique Indian ebony furnishings of George, Prince of Wales, which were then dated to the Elizabethan age. Indeed Longleat was well known for its ebony furniture, commented upon by Horace Walpole, and some of which was listed in an inventory of 1740. It is therefore possible that in designing the present suite, Oakley was influenced by the ebony furniture at Longleat.
A closely related oak open armchair, with chimerical arm-supports, was sold anonymously, Christie's London, 14 April 1988, lot 17 and another with lion-headed arm-supports, was sold from the Wilfred Evill Collection, Sotheby's London, 12 July 1963, lot 87.
The use of national oak for Longleat's library furniture reflects an antiquarian association with English furniture of the age of Shakespeare and with the mansion's Elizabethan architecture. Likewise the intricate carving of the rails can also be linked to the contemporary antique Indian ebony furnishings of George, Prince of Wales, which were then dated to the Elizabethan age. Indeed Longleat was well known for its ebony furniture, commented upon by Horace Walpole, and some of which was listed in an inventory of 1740. It is therefore possible that in designing the present suite, Oakley was influenced by the ebony furniture at Longleat.
A closely related oak open armchair, with chimerical arm-supports, was sold anonymously, Christie's London, 14 April 1988, lot 17 and another with lion-headed arm-supports, was sold from the Wilfred Evill Collection, Sotheby's London, 12 July 1963, lot 87.