Lot Essay
This pair of mahogany dining-chairs has a pierced splat in a design that was popular in Ireland. The splat is in the shape of an antique Roman vase, the piercing above intended to imitate fluting. 'Roman' acanthus folds over the top of the chair and ornaments each corner, the tops of the legs and the 'fetlocks' above the feet. The legs are joined by a flattened H-shaped serpentine stretcher typical of Irish chairs of this period - long after technical innovation allowed for English chairs of the same date to be constructed without stretchers. Interestingly, this same splat design appears on a mahogany open armchair now at Malahide Castle, Co. Dublin (see Irish Furniture, p. 107, fig. 136).