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Lot Essay
These magnificent George III chairs have French framed 'cabriolet' backs, whose center and corners are richly ornamented, like their taper-hermed legs, with palm-flowers crowning Apollonian sunflowered medallions.
THE DESIGN
APOLLO'S SUNFLOWERS Appropriate to the 'antique' style introduced by the Rome-trained architects of George III's court, the sunflowers, framed in 'Roman' medallions served to the recall Ovid's Metamorphoses, or Loves of the Gods and the history of the sun-god Apollo's love Clytie, who was metamorphosized into a sunflower. The flower had been further popularised by Robert Woods' publication The Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, 1753. In fashionable drawing-rooms it served to recall the deity's Mt. Parnassus role as god of poetry and leader of the Muses of Artistic Inspiration.
TRIUMPHAL PALMS The palm served to celebrate poetic triumphs in the Arts of Peace, just as it had marked the military triumphs in the Arts of War. The palm was to prove a popular motif during the turbulent 1750s and the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, which witnessed Britain's achievement of 'sea dominion'. It was one of the motifs that flourished during the revolutionary change made to British interior decoration under the leadership of the artist/architect James Stuart (d.1788), whose long lasting studies of antiquity, spent in Athens as well as in Rome, earned him the title 'Athenian' Stuart. His promotion of Grecian elegance, under encouragement from connoisseurs in the Society of Dilletanti, resulted in the publication of his first volume of The Antiquity of Athens, 1762 , that followed shortly that of the French architect Le Roy entitled, Les Plus.'.
The palm motif of ancient coins featured in both Stuart's interior decoration as well as in decorative designs for George III's celebratory medals and coins, such as the golden Britannia 'Quebec taken' medal of 1759; and the 1761 Society Promoting Arts and Commerce's medal recording 'The Capture of Pondicherry' and the French expulsion from India. The palm was an important element of his designs for the 'patriot' Sir Nathaniel Curzon (d.1813). At Kedleston, Derbyshire, Curzon celebrated 'sea dominion' with a stately sea-blue apartment that focused on a golden palm-tree bed (see R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol. I, p. 65, fig. 53). The latter, evoking Shakespeare's Britain as a 'sceptred isle, was accompanied by couches borne by Neptune's festive retinue of tritons and nereids. These triton attendants of the water-deity also appeared alongside the medal-decked palms of Britain's state coach, whose design was instigated by George III at the time of his accession in 1760.
JAMES STUART'S GRECIAN PALM ORNAMENT AND CHAIR DESIGNS.
Queen Charlotte's regal sedan-chair, gracefully wave-scrolled with golden enrichments in Grecian Ionic style, was likewise framed by palms and hung with 'sunflower' medallions. This is likely to have been the seat that was seen at St. James's Palace by the historian and diarist Horace Walpole (d. 1797), who recalled that it had been designed by James Stuart. Stuart had also designed the Queen's new throne at St. James's Palace (see J. Roberts, ed., George III & Queen Charlotte, London, 2004, no. 274, pp. 268-269).
Triumphal 'nike', the winged and palm-bearing 'Victory' figures of antiquity, were a favoured motif of 'Athenian' Stuart's designs for 'patriots' such as John Spencer, lst Earl Spencer and Sir Nathaniel Curzon, Bt. In the late 1750s, Stuart provided the latter with a design for a stately assembly room, whose 'cabriolet' chairs displayed upholstery that was worked with triumphal palm leaves. Palms also featured on Stuart's chair-frames designed shortly afterwards for the St James's assembly room of Earl Spencer at Spencer House, London (see S. W. Soros, ed., James "Athenian" Stuart: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, New York, p. 446, fig. 10-52). Such palm leaf embroidery would well suit the present chairs, with their frames richly foliated in bas-relief carving in 'antique' fashion. In particular their frames' foliated 'rinceaux' or scrolls correspond to the Grecian ornament associated with the festive Athenian Dionysiac temple called the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. Popularly known as the Temple of Demosthenes, this Corinthian temple's dome was crowned by a palm-wrapped plinth supporting a triumphal altar-tripod. While the palm-wrapped legs of these chairs can be related to those of the temple plinth, its foliage relates to that wreathing the dionsiac or bacchic 'satyr' head on the choragic tripod bowl that was designed by Stuart.
Undoubtedly commissioned for one of the grandest interiors of its time, it is tempting to ascribe the design of these chairs to Stuart. In addition to his great London townhouse commissions - such as Spencer House, Holdernesse House (later known as Londonderry House) and 23 Hill Street (Mrs. Elizabeth Montague), Stuart is also believed to have designed interiors for George III at Buckingham House (c. 1763) and Windsor Castle (c. 1765-69) (see S. W. Soros, ed., op. cit., pp. 195-196). It is possible that, like the Spencer House suite noted above, they were executed by the cabinet-makers and upholders Messrs. Gordon and Tait of St. James's (fl. 1748-96).
THE DESIGN
APOLLO'S SUNFLOWERS Appropriate to the 'antique' style introduced by the Rome-trained architects of George III's court, the sunflowers, framed in 'Roman' medallions served to the recall Ovid's Metamorphoses, or Loves of the Gods and the history of the sun-god Apollo's love Clytie, who was metamorphosized into a sunflower. The flower had been further popularised by Robert Woods' publication The Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, 1753. In fashionable drawing-rooms it served to recall the deity's Mt. Parnassus role as god of poetry and leader of the Muses of Artistic Inspiration.
TRIUMPHAL PALMS The palm served to celebrate poetic triumphs in the Arts of Peace, just as it had marked the military triumphs in the Arts of War. The palm was to prove a popular motif during the turbulent 1750s and the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, which witnessed Britain's achievement of 'sea dominion'. It was one of the motifs that flourished during the revolutionary change made to British interior decoration under the leadership of the artist/architect James Stuart (d.1788), whose long lasting studies of antiquity, spent in Athens as well as in Rome, earned him the title 'Athenian' Stuart. His promotion of Grecian elegance, under encouragement from connoisseurs in the Society of Dilletanti, resulted in the publication of his first volume of The Antiquity of Athens, 1762 , that followed shortly that of the French architect Le Roy entitled, Les Plus.'.
The palm motif of ancient coins featured in both Stuart's interior decoration as well as in decorative designs for George III's celebratory medals and coins, such as the golden Britannia 'Quebec taken' medal of 1759; and the 1761 Society Promoting Arts and Commerce's medal recording 'The Capture of Pondicherry' and the French expulsion from India. The palm was an important element of his designs for the 'patriot' Sir Nathaniel Curzon (d.1813). At Kedleston, Derbyshire, Curzon celebrated 'sea dominion' with a stately sea-blue apartment that focused on a golden palm-tree bed (see R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol. I, p. 65, fig. 53). The latter, evoking Shakespeare's Britain as a 'sceptred isle, was accompanied by couches borne by Neptune's festive retinue of tritons and nereids. These triton attendants of the water-deity also appeared alongside the medal-decked palms of Britain's state coach, whose design was instigated by George III at the time of his accession in 1760.
JAMES STUART'S GRECIAN PALM ORNAMENT AND CHAIR DESIGNS.
Queen Charlotte's regal sedan-chair, gracefully wave-scrolled with golden enrichments in Grecian Ionic style, was likewise framed by palms and hung with 'sunflower' medallions. This is likely to have been the seat that was seen at St. James's Palace by the historian and diarist Horace Walpole (d. 1797), who recalled that it had been designed by James Stuart. Stuart had also designed the Queen's new throne at St. James's Palace (see J. Roberts, ed., George III & Queen Charlotte, London, 2004, no. 274, pp. 268-269).
Triumphal 'nike', the winged and palm-bearing 'Victory' figures of antiquity, were a favoured motif of 'Athenian' Stuart's designs for 'patriots' such as John Spencer, lst Earl Spencer and Sir Nathaniel Curzon, Bt. In the late 1750s, Stuart provided the latter with a design for a stately assembly room, whose 'cabriolet' chairs displayed upholstery that was worked with triumphal palm leaves. Palms also featured on Stuart's chair-frames designed shortly afterwards for the St James's assembly room of Earl Spencer at Spencer House, London (see S. W. Soros, ed., James "Athenian" Stuart: The Rediscovery of Antiquity, New York, p. 446, fig. 10-52). Such palm leaf embroidery would well suit the present chairs, with their frames richly foliated in bas-relief carving in 'antique' fashion. In particular their frames' foliated 'rinceaux' or scrolls correspond to the Grecian ornament associated with the festive Athenian Dionysiac temple called the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. Popularly known as the Temple of Demosthenes, this Corinthian temple's dome was crowned by a palm-wrapped plinth supporting a triumphal altar-tripod. While the palm-wrapped legs of these chairs can be related to those of the temple plinth, its foliage relates to that wreathing the dionsiac or bacchic 'satyr' head on the choragic tripod bowl that was designed by Stuart.
Undoubtedly commissioned for one of the grandest interiors of its time, it is tempting to ascribe the design of these chairs to Stuart. In addition to his great London townhouse commissions - such as Spencer House, Holdernesse House (later known as Londonderry House) and 23 Hill Street (Mrs. Elizabeth Montague), Stuart is also believed to have designed interiors for George III at Buckingham House (c. 1763) and Windsor Castle (c. 1765-69) (see S. W. Soros, ed., op. cit., pp. 195-196). It is possible that, like the Spencer House suite noted above, they were executed by the cabinet-makers and upholders Messrs. Gordon and Tait of St. James's (fl. 1748-96).