Lot Essay
This pattern of Grecian-scrolled and French squab-seated 'bergere' chair is conceived in the florid 'British' fashion promoted at the commencement of George IV's Regency in 1812; and was invented by the architect and 'Grosvenor Estate' surveyor William Porden (d.1822) assisted by his son-in-law Joseph Kay for the Drawing Room of Robert, 2nd Earl Grosvenor's mansion at Eaton Hall, Cheshire. Intended for floral upholstery, its reed-sculpted mahogany frame is embellished with golden 'gothic' flowers and foliage in bas-relief medallions and tablets, while more flowers are sculpted in its triumphal-arched and gothic-cusped frets.
Grosvenor's patriotic contribution in promoting the national Arts was rewarded with his elevation as Marquis of Westminster (1831); while his 'British' taste was publicised by 'Eaton Hall' watercolours executed in 1824 and published by J.C. Buckler in, Views of Eaton Hall, 1826; as well as by the Grosvenor furnishings illustrated in Rudolph Ackermann's, Repository of Arts, 1825. (see the Drawing Room illustrated Guy Acloque and John Cornforth, 'The Eternal Gothic of Eaton - II', Country Life, CLXIX, 1971, p. 363, fig. 6). A Porden design, proposed for the accompanying Drawing Room Grecian-sofas, is preserved in the Chester Record Office (see Acloque ibid, fig. 7). Unfortunately the suite has not been identified amongst payments made between 1813 and 1815 and totalling over $15,000. for the furniture supplied for Eaton and the London residence by Messrs. Gillow of London and Lancaster. Another of the Grosvenor Drawing Rooms chairs, acquired in 1959 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, is labelled as being probably designed by A.C. Pugin (d.1832) and executed by Gillow and Co. around 1823.
A closely related chair is illustrated in C. Payne, Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, 1989, p. 147.
Grosvenor's patriotic contribution in promoting the national Arts was rewarded with his elevation as Marquis of Westminster (1831); while his 'British' taste was publicised by 'Eaton Hall' watercolours executed in 1824 and published by J.C. Buckler in, Views of Eaton Hall, 1826; as well as by the Grosvenor furnishings illustrated in Rudolph Ackermann's, Repository of Arts, 1825. (see the Drawing Room illustrated Guy Acloque and John Cornforth, 'The Eternal Gothic of Eaton - II', Country Life, CLXIX, 1971, p. 363, fig. 6). A Porden design, proposed for the accompanying Drawing Room Grecian-sofas, is preserved in the Chester Record Office (see Acloque ibid, fig. 7). Unfortunately the suite has not been identified amongst payments made between 1813 and 1815 and totalling over $15,000. for the furniture supplied for Eaton and the London residence by Messrs. Gillow of London and Lancaster. Another of the Grosvenor Drawing Rooms chairs, acquired in 1959 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, is labelled as being probably designed by A.C. Pugin (d.1832) and executed by Gillow and Co. around 1823.
A closely related chair is illustrated in C. Payne, Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture, 1989, p. 147.