CIRCA 1780

Details

A SET OF SIX GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS
CIRCA 1780
Each with oval padded back with leaf-carved frame, part padded and leaf-carved arms with downcurved husk-carved supports terminating in swagged blocks, the bowed seat with reeded rails and on slender reeded and stiff-leaf legs, upholstered in green moire silk, one with depository label R.P Over & Son's Ltd....CAMBERLEY, regilt, with batten carrying holes
37½ in. (95 cm.) high; 23½ in. (60 cm.) wide; 23½ in (60 cm.) deep (6)

Provenance

Thomas Weld (d. 1810), Lulworth Castle, Dorset.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 11 April 1991, lot 51 (a set of four).
Sir Paul Getty, K.B.E. and by descent.

Literature

C. Hussey, 'Lulworth Castle, Dorset', Country Life, 9 January 1926, p. 57, fig. 13.

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

The elegant French-fashioned 'cabriolet' chairs are designed in the 1770's antique fashion evoking the triumph of lyric poetry with palm-wreathed and Roman-medallioned backs and sacred veil-draped tablets. This chair pattern, but with minor variations, was executed for the drawing room designed in the 1770's for Lulworth Castle, Dorset by the architect John Tasker (d. 1816). In particular they relate to seat furniture designed by the architect James Wyatt (d. 1813), who had a close working relationship with Tasker as well as with the London and Lancaster cabinet-makers Messrs. Gillows. One of Gillows' related 'Wyatt' like armchairs, with palm-wreathed columnar legs, was formerly in the collection of Dr. Lindsay Boynton, author of Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, 1995 (see S.E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, pl. 148). Thomas Weld was invoiced by upholsterers Hunt, Tucker and Wadman on 10 January 1782 for recovering eight chairs with satin £1.9.4. (Dorset History Centre, D/WLC: AF88).

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