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Lot Essay
These 'cabriolet' chairs with acanthus-supported medallion backs, upholstered with loose frames à chassis were designed by John Linnell (d. 1796) in the French antique style of the early 1770s. With their imbricated-paterae embellishing the hermed front legs, Grecian-scrolled arms with acanthus-wrapped cabochons and laurel-wreathed cabochon toprails, their design is directly inspired by a prototype French chair-pattern executed by the menuisier Jean-Baptiste Boulard (maître in 1755) (illustrated in M. Jarry, Le Siège Français, Fribourg 1973, p. 203, figs. 195-6). Linnell helped furnish a number of houses under the direction of the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792) and had studied French ornament at the St. Martin's Lane art-school 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 Society Journal, 1969, fig. 16). It is more than the design that connects this pair of chairs to French cabinetmaking. The pegged construction of this particular pair suggests they may have been made by a French émigré in Linnell's workshop.
Linnell's watercolour chair-pattern (Victoria & Albert, no. E82-1929), is also accompanied by an enlarged detail of the acanthus-wrapped cabochon, which is tied to the seat-rail with its pearled ribbon-guilloche (P. Ward-Jackson,English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 241).
Two other armchairs of this pattern were sold Christie's, London, Property of a Lady of Title, 17 March 2011, lot 79; and a set of six armchairs sold anonymously at Sotheby's, 6 July 1962, lot 1290. Four pairs of closely related chairs were sold Christie's, London, 'A Collection of Important Furniture: The Property of Mr. Edward Sarofim', 16 November 1995, lot 122 (sold £29,900 inc. prem.), lot 123 (£32,200 inc. prem.), lot 124 and 125 (both £29,900 inc. prem.).
Amongst the Linnell archive are two related settee patterns designed en suite with medallioned mirrors, which may have formed part of the furnishings of Robert Adam's interiors at Wimbledon House, Surrey, for which Linnell received payments amounting to £1,400 from Sir Robert Cunliffe (d. 1778) in the early 1770s (H. Hayward, op.cit, vol.I, p.90 and vol.II, figs. 30 and 28). A closely related suite of seat furniture, supplied around 1775 to John, 5th Duke of Argyll for Inveraray Castle, Scotland and upholstered with floral Gobelins tapestry, was amongst the furniture that drove James Maxwell to write in 1777
'To describe the furniture, so grand, I must confess is far above me hand. The organs, instruments, and golden chairs, can never fully be describ'd...' (H. Hayward, op. cit., figs. 89, 256 and 257, p. 126).
Linnell's watercolour chair-pattern (Victoria & Albert, no. E82-1929), is also accompanied by an enlarged detail of the acanthus-wrapped cabochon, which is tied to the seat-rail with its pearled ribbon-guilloche (P. Ward-Jackson,English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 241).
Two other armchairs of this pattern were sold Christie's, London, Property of a Lady of Title, 17 March 2011, lot 79; and a set of six armchairs sold anonymously at Sotheby's, 6 July 1962, lot 1290. Four pairs of closely related chairs were sold Christie's, London, 'A Collection of Important Furniture: The Property of Mr. Edward Sarofim', 16 November 1995, lot 122 (sold £29,900 inc. prem.), lot 123 (£32,200 inc. prem.), lot 124 and 125 (both £29,900 inc. prem.).
Amongst the Linnell archive are two related settee patterns designed en suite with medallioned mirrors, which may have formed part of the furnishings of Robert Adam's interiors at Wimbledon House, Surrey, for which Linnell received payments amounting to £1,400 from Sir Robert Cunliffe (d. 1778) in the early 1770s (H. Hayward, op.cit, vol.I, p.90 and vol.II, figs. 30 and 28). A closely related suite of seat furniture, supplied around 1775 to John, 5th Duke of Argyll for Inveraray Castle, Scotland and upholstered with floral Gobelins tapestry, was amongst the furniture that drove James Maxwell to write in 1777
'To describe the furniture, so grand, I must confess is far above me hand. The organs, instruments, and golden chairs, can never fully be describ'd...' (H. Hayward, op. cit., figs. 89, 256 and 257, p. 126).