CIRCA 1820, ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE SMITH

The romantic George IV dining chair, with heraldic caryatid arms supported by Apollo's griffin head 'erased and borne on a wreath', reflects the antiquarian fashion for fusing Grecian and medieval styles. The Brewer Street cabinet-maker George Smith (d. 1826/7), described as 'Principal of the Drawing Academy' and 'Upholsterer and Furniture Draughtsman' to George IV, engraved its pattern for a 'Dining Room Gothic Chair' in 1827. Although the pattern featured in Smith's, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826/7 (pl. 43), the chair may already have been executed by Smith, since he claimed to have been employed, 'by some of the most exalted characters in the country to manufacture many of the Designs'.