拍品专文
These heraldically-charged seats were almost certainly commissioned by Charles Maynard, 6th Lord Maynard (d.1766) following his inheritance in 1745 of Easton Lodge, Essex; and are conceived as festive antiquarian 'back-stools' that are ribbon-fretted in the George II 'picturesque' fashion appropriate for the ancient familys banqueting hall seats. Their hollow-swagged seats are raised on 'folding-stool' frames, whose serpentined truss pilasters terminate in waved volutes and display escutcheon cartouches on their triumphal arched stretchers. Instead of the fashionable solid mahogany backed seat, associated with the revived Romano British court style of Inigo Jones (d. 1652), their gothic-cusped and triumphal arched backs are fretted with the scalloped and pelta-scrolled armorial escutcheons incorporated in antique 'urn' splats like the Queen Anne 'India' back parlour chairs. These escutcheons are japanned with the Maynard motto, translated as 'A sweet hand is a precious ointment , and this is inscribed on a fretted ribbon beneath the magnificent Maynard armorials.
A related 'Hall Chair' pattern of 1759 featured in Thomas Chippendale's, Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762, pl. 17) and in the 1750s designs of the Berkeley Square cabinet-maker William Linnell preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum (H. Hayward & P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 22).
A related 'Hall Chair' pattern of 1759 featured in Thomas Chippendale's, Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director, 3rd ed., 1762, pl. 17) and in the 1750s designs of the Berkeley Square cabinet-maker William Linnell preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum (H. Hayward & P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 22).