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Lot Essay
The serpentined frame is acanthus-wrapped in the French 'picturesque' fashion popularised as 'Modern' in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, while reeded flutes, in the 'antique' manner, enrich its volute-trussed legs. These pearl-headed flutes, derived from the legs of ancient altar-tripods, also feature on seat furniture designed for the antique sculpture gallery at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, and supplied in 1757 by the celebrated Soho firm of cabinet-makers, upholsterers and tapestry-makers, Messrs Paul Saunders and George Smith Bradshaw (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, fig. 379).
A pair of chairs of this same pattern and probably from the same suite was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 16 July 1982, lot 102. The same pattern chairs were commissioned by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (d. 1758) for Castle Howard, Yorkshire (see Castle Howard, guidebook, Birmingham, 1988, p. 30).
A pair of chairs of this same pattern and probably from the same suite was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 16 July 1982, lot 102. The same pattern chairs were commissioned by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle (d. 1758) for Castle Howard, Yorkshire (see Castle Howard, guidebook, Birmingham, 1988, p. 30).