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Lot Essay
The compass-fronted chair shows stylistic characteristics associated with the Clerkenwell cabinet-maker Giles Grendey (d.1780), while the journeyman's stamp 'RW' provides a further compelling link. The same stamp appears on a set of probably 12 chairs and a settee attributed to Grendey. Of that set, six chairs (plus the unstamped settee) are in the collection formed by Viscount Leverhulme, four were acquired in 1975 by Noel Terry for Fairfax House, York, and a further pair were sold Christie's, London, 25 June 1981, lot 25 (L.Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, 2008, vol.I, no.20, pp.245-263).
A similar chair was sold Christie's, New York, 21-22 October 2010, lot 386 ($9,375 inc.prem.).
The chair also shows close stylistic affinities with a pair of side chairs sold Sotheby's, London, 7 July 2009, lot 5 (£33,650 inc.prem.), which in turn relate to a further set of eight, also in the Leverhulme collection and described as 'possibly by Samuel Ogden of Lichfield' (L.Wood, ibid, vol.I, no.34, pp.397-406).
A similar chair was sold Christie's, New York, 21-22 October 2010, lot 386 ($9,375 inc.prem.).
The chair also shows close stylistic affinities with a pair of side chairs sold Sotheby's, London, 7 July 2009, lot 5 (£33,650 inc.prem.), which in turn relate to a further set of eight, also in the Leverhulme collection and described as 'possibly by Samuel Ogden of Lichfield' (L.Wood, ibid, vol.I, no.34, pp.397-406).