.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The design of these parlour chairs can be firmly attributed to the Berkeley Square cabinet-maker John Linnell (d. 1796), the author of A New Book of Ornaments, issued at the time of George III's accession in 1760. Their composition can be seen as a particularly elegant example of the type of 'Parlour Chair' for which patterns were issued by Robert Manwaring in his Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion, 1765, and in Household Furniture in Genteel Taste for the Year 1760 published by 'A Society of Upholsterers'.
Linnell's basic design for this pattern of tufted and leather-seated parlour chair, of a more simplified form with straight legs, survives in an Album preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and entitled A Miscellaneous Collection of Original Designs made by John Linnell (H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980, vol. II, p. 25, fig. 45).. The design is likely to have been executed in 1767, the year that Linnell was also supplying Dining-Room furniture to accord with the Roman architecture that Robert Adam (d.1792) had introduced for Robert Child at Osterley Park, Middlesex and also at Shardeloes, the Buckinghamshire villa of William Drake (d. 1796). The Shardeloes chairs (illustrated in H. Hayward, op. cit., fig. 47) and a set almost certainly supplied for Upton House, Oxfordshire, another Child property, and later at Middleton Park, both conform to the more simplified version depicted in the Linnell drawing. The Upton/Middleton chairs were sold by the Late Dr. Eric Till, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 32 (while twelve further chairs of a plainer type from Middleton were sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 15 November 1996, lot 61).
A similar armchair of this model, notably with the elaborate outscrolled arms, is illustrated in H. Cesinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, New York, 1968, p. 261. Another set of seven with cabriole legs was sold in these Rooms, the Estate of James Lane Jefferson, 18 October 2001, lot 32. The arms are of a similar profile as the suite of mahogany seat furniture supplied for Wimpole Hall and attributed to one of the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-makers - William Hallett, William Vile and John Cobb. A pair of library chairs from the suite was sold by Nelson Grimaldi Seabra, in these Rooms, 22 October 2003, lot 120.
Linnell's basic design for this pattern of tufted and leather-seated parlour chair, of a more simplified form with straight legs, survives in an Album preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and entitled A Miscellaneous Collection of Original Designs made by John Linnell (H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980, vol. II, p. 25, fig. 45).. The design is likely to have been executed in 1767, the year that Linnell was also supplying Dining-Room furniture to accord with the Roman architecture that Robert Adam (d.1792) had introduced for Robert Child at Osterley Park, Middlesex and also at Shardeloes, the Buckinghamshire villa of William Drake (d. 1796). The Shardeloes chairs (illustrated in H. Hayward, op. cit., fig. 47) and a set almost certainly supplied for Upton House, Oxfordshire, another Child property, and later at Middleton Park, both conform to the more simplified version depicted in the Linnell drawing. The Upton/Middleton chairs were sold by the Late Dr. Eric Till, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 32 (while twelve further chairs of a plainer type from Middleton were sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 15 November 1996, lot 61).
A similar armchair of this model, notably with the elaborate outscrolled arms, is illustrated in H. Cesinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, New York, 1968, p. 261. Another set of seven with cabriole legs was sold in these Rooms, the Estate of James Lane Jefferson, 18 October 2001, lot 32. The arms are of a similar profile as the suite of mahogany seat furniture supplied for Wimpole Hall and attributed to one of the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-makers - William Hallett, William Vile and John Cobb. A pair of library chairs from the suite was sold by Nelson Grimaldi Seabra, in these Rooms, 22 October 2003, lot 120.