.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This antique-fluted stool, with pilaster legs capped by floral-pateraed tablets, is designed in the 'Roman' manner introduced in the early 1760s by one of George III's court architects, Robert 'Bob the Roman' Adam (d. 1792).
In particular it relates to a 'Scroll Stool' pattern, in the manner of a Roman triclinium couch, invented by Adam for Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt. but later adopted by George William, 6th Earl of Coventry (d. 1809) for his Gallery at Croome Court, Worcestershire. The stools were pencilled into Adam's 1763 plan for finishing this Gallery, which was conceived in 'the Antique Taste' to serve like Pliny's Horreum 'as a repository for statues, bas reliefs and other curious [richly wrought] productions of art'. The stool frames harmonised with the Gallery's stuccoed ceiling, which was inspired by Rome's Temple of Peace and mosaiced with sunflowered paterae in octagon compartments borded by antique-flutes. The stools were supplied in 1766 by the court cabinet-maker, John Bradburn (d. 1781) in collaboration with the specialist carver Sefferin Alken (d. 1783); while the en suite chairs, designed by Adam in 1765, were supplied by the court cabinet-maker, John Cobb (d. 1778), also in collaboration with Alken (E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, His Interiors, London, 2001, pp. 48-53, figs. 75 and 76). While the present stool lacks some of the carved mouldings of the Croome pattern, its flutes are partly enriched with reeds.
In particular it relates to a 'Scroll Stool' pattern, in the manner of a Roman triclinium couch, invented by Adam for Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt. but later adopted by George William, 6th Earl of Coventry (d. 1809) for his Gallery at Croome Court, Worcestershire. The stools were pencilled into Adam's 1763 plan for finishing this Gallery, which was conceived in 'the Antique Taste' to serve like Pliny's Horreum 'as a repository for statues, bas reliefs and other curious [richly wrought] productions of art'. The stool frames harmonised with the Gallery's stuccoed ceiling, which was inspired by Rome's Temple of Peace and mosaiced with sunflowered paterae in octagon compartments borded by antique-flutes. The stools were supplied in 1766 by the court cabinet-maker, John Bradburn (d. 1781) in collaboration with the specialist carver Sefferin Alken (d. 1783); while the en suite chairs, designed by Adam in 1765, were supplied by the court cabinet-maker, John Cobb (d. 1778), also in collaboration with Alken (E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, His Interiors, London, 2001, pp. 48-53, figs. 75 and 76). While the present stool lacks some of the carved mouldings of the Croome pattern, its flutes are partly enriched with reeds.