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Lot Essay
These 'cabriolet' chairs with Roman-medallion backs and fluted and pearled frames are designed in the French antique style, promoted in the 1770's by London cabinet-makers including John Linnell and Mayhew and Ince.
Linnell had studied French ornament at the St. Martin's Lane Academy before inheriting his father's cabinet-making and upholstery workshops in Berkeley Square. A number of his chair-patterns demonstrate an interest in French furniture and particularly the influence of the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Delafosse's Recueil de Meubles, 1768 (H. Hayward, 'The Drawings of John Linnell', Furniture History, 1969), and he worked closely with, and probably also employed, the Swedish émigré craftsmen Christopher Fürlohg and Georg Haupt in the late 1760's.
The Golden Square cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince had been among the first to embrace the Neo-classical style in the 1760's and subsequently established strong links among the Francophile patrons of Henry Holland and expatriate French marchand-merciers. Like Linnell, they almost certainly employed émigré craftsmen.
The design for this chair relates closely to Delafosse's drawing in the collection of the musée des Arts-Décoratifs, Paris (inv. 8440) though constructional features such as the rounding of the back of the chair frame and batten-carrying holes in the seat rails are consistent with English cabinet-workshop practice. The reeded foot and the oval paterae or sunflowers are features associated with both firms, such as Linnell's chair designs of circa 1768-70 and circa 1775-80 (see H. Hayward, ibid., figs. 11, 17 and 18, and pp. 85-86), and the suite of furniture supplied by Mayhew and Ince around 1782 to Sir Richard Middleton for Chirk Castle, Denbighshire (see a pair of open armchairs sold Christie's house sale, Chirk Castle, 21 June 2004, lot 50.
Linnell had studied French ornament at the St. Martin's Lane Academy before inheriting his father's cabinet-making and upholstery workshops in Berkeley Square. A number of his chair-patterns demonstrate an interest in French furniture and particularly the influence of the Parisian architect Jean-Charles Delafosse's Recueil de Meubles, 1768 (H. Hayward, 'The Drawings of John Linnell', Furniture History, 1969), and he worked closely with, and probably also employed, the Swedish émigré craftsmen Christopher Fürlohg and Georg Haupt in the late 1760's.
The Golden Square cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince had been among the first to embrace the Neo-classical style in the 1760's and subsequently established strong links among the Francophile patrons of Henry Holland and expatriate French marchand-merciers. Like Linnell, they almost certainly employed émigré craftsmen.
The design for this chair relates closely to Delafosse's drawing in the collection of the musée des Arts-Décoratifs, Paris (inv. 8440) though constructional features such as the rounding of the back of the chair frame and batten-carrying holes in the seat rails are consistent with English cabinet-workshop practice. The reeded foot and the oval paterae or sunflowers are features associated with both firms, such as Linnell's chair designs of circa 1768-70 and circa 1775-80 (see H. Hayward, ibid., figs. 11, 17 and 18, and pp. 85-86), and the suite of furniture supplied by Mayhew and Ince around 1782 to Sir Richard Middleton for Chirk Castle, Denbighshire (see a pair of open armchairs sold Christie's house sale, Chirk Castle, 21 June 2004, lot 50.