EARLY 19TH CENTURY, STAMPED G. STANLEY

Details

A SET OF EIGHT REGENCY BRASS-MOUNTED AND EBONISED-INLAID MAHOGANY DINING-CHAIRS
EARLY 19TH CENTURY, STAMPED G. STANLEY
Comprising two armchairs and six side chairs, each with curved tablet toprail centred by a winged maiden's mask surrounded by Greek key, above a padded seat covered in salmon pink striped cotton, on sabre legs, three side chairs stamped 'G. STANLEY' (8)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

The chairs may be attributed to the regency cabinet-maker and upholder George Oakley (1773-1840), whose showrooms were located at various addresses in Old and New Bond Streets throughout the first quarter of the 19th century. As a neighbour of the Old Bond Street auctioneer George Stanley, it is possible that Stanley's rooms may have been used to sell Oakley's furniture.
We are grateful to John Bedford for this additional information.

Lot Essay

The chairs' Grecian-tablet rails are inlaid with Grecian-black ribbons and displays a golden Medusa-masked medallion, that is emblematic of ancient virtue and recalls the shield of Athena, Protectress of the Arts. A stool pattern, designed in the French/antique manner and displaying a Medusa shield, featured alongside Grecian-scrolled chairs and a Medusa-masked lantern in T. Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pls. 29, 11 and 38). The Greek key-fret pattern, favoured by architects such as Sir John Soane (d. 1837), appears in a bookcase pattern issued in George Smith's, A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1820 (pl. 107), so it is possible these chairs were designed for a library and intended to be upholstered in black leather.

A pattern for a related Grecian-scrolled and ebony-inlaid chair features in the 1805 Sketch Book of Gillows of Lancaster, and may have been invented for chairs supplied to Lowther Castle, Westmorland (see a set of chairs sold Christie’, onodon , 20 September 2001, lot 171). The craftsman's stamp of G. Stanley has been recorded on a closely related set of chairs with Egyptian sunburst medallions (sold anonymously, Christie'’s, London, 2 May 2002, lot 01l).

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