CIRCA 1770

The form of this duchesse brisée is derived from French designs of this model dating from the mid-18th century onwards. A design illustrated in George Hepplewhite's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, third edition, 1794, pl. 28, shows a similar example and demonstrates the taste in the late 18th Century for furniture in the French style. Indeed Hepplewhite noted 'This piece of furniture also is derived from the French. Two Barjier [Bergere] chairs, of proper construction, with a stool in the middle, form the duchesse, which is allotted to large and spacious anti-rooms: the covering may be various, as also the frame-work, and made from 6 to 8 feet long'. A similar design, although with square rather than turned tapering legs, appears in the Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows and is dated 1793, illustrated in L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs, 1760-1800, 1995, fig. 291.

A comparable example is illustrated in C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and Other Neo-Classical Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 86.