CIRCA 1820-30

This well carved and ormolu-enriched sofa, designed in the George IV French/Grecian fashion popularised by T. Kings Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified, features Apollo's Pythian serpent coiled round the cushion that is propped against the head-ends triumphal palm-flowered and cippus-capped pillar. The contemporary interest in Egypt encouraged Thomas Sheraton to publish a lyre-back chair comprised of serpents in his Encyclopaedia, 1806 (pl.15); while William Pocock introduced a serpent-supported desk on his Grecian-scrolled library-chair that appeared in R. Ackermanns, The Repository of Arts, 1811 . In particular, this sofa reflects the French fashion of the Soho ébéniste S. Jamar, who boasted himself as Cabinet-Maker to Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and whose Gerard Street manufactory, established in 1819, produced furniture equal to any made in Paris (see C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1700-1840, London, 1996).