.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Although the overall design and construction of these chairs is of a type often associated with Thomas Chippendale, a number of comparable suites have recently been discovered that suggest several makers were working in a similar idiom.
A significant characteristic is the design of the arms which scroll down directly into the top of the leg and which does not appear on any provenanced Chippendale chairs where the arm joins the seatrail some distance back from the top of the front leg. This same leg and arm construction was used on a set of chairs at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, that are now attributed to Mayhew and Ince, (see G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, p. 596). A suite from Cobham Hall, Kent, also now attributed to Mayhew and Ince also features this arm design with a husk-entwined flowerhead cresting (sold anonymously, Christie's London, 19 November 1992, lot 104). It therefore seems impossible to make a confident attribution of this chair to any individual out of the leading London makers of the period.
A significant characteristic is the design of the arms which scroll down directly into the top of the leg and which does not appear on any provenanced Chippendale chairs where the arm joins the seatrail some distance back from the top of the front leg. This same leg and arm construction was used on a set of chairs at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, that are now attributed to Mayhew and Ince, (see G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, p. 596). A suite from Cobham Hall, Kent, also now attributed to Mayhew and Ince also features this arm design with a husk-entwined flowerhead cresting (sold anonymously, Christie's London, 19 November 1992, lot 104). It therefore seems impossible to make a confident attribution of this chair to any individual out of the leading London makers of the period.