CIRCA 1820, REDECORATED IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY

Details

A pair of George IV black and gilt-japanned 'Klismos' open armchairs
Circa 1820, redecorated in the late 19th Century
Applied with brass-mounts, the top-rail decorated with sphinx, cornucopia and anthenium above a cross-splat back and downscrolled arms, on sabre legs, old damages to the arm terminals, the seat-rails incised with roman numerals indicating that they were previously part of a larger set, with a later paper property label for Princess Margaret (2)

Provenance

Placed in the Drawing Room of the Private Apartment of H.R.H. The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon at Kensington Palace.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

These elegant Grecian-scrolled and French squab-cushioned chairs relate to the pattern for a Grecian couch, "ornamented with or-moulu" illustrated in R. Ackermann' s Repository of Arts, 1811 (pl.25). The palm-flowered ribbon-guilloche of their japanned Grecian-black frames derives from engravings of Etruscan/Grecian vases, while the scrolled crestings feature flower-filled urns and Egyptian sphinx guarding Ceres' fruit-filled cornucopiae issuing from flaming sacred urns. Their golden ornament can be compared to the contemporary 'penwork' fashion for decorating "on a black ground, in imitation of Indian ivory inlaid work" discussed by Ackermann in 1810 (see N. Riley, English Penwork, Antiques, September, 2004 pp. 117-123). The pattern for their palm-flowered bas-relief tablets features in a Birmingham Metal-worker's book, listed in three sizes as No. 620:- "Chair Ornaments with spikes to drive" (N. Goodison, The Victoria & Albert Museum's Collection of Metal-Work Pattern Books, pp.1-30, fig 47).

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