PROPERTY OF A NEW ENGLAND COLLECTOR (LOT 732) The following lots were descended from George Widener (1861-1912), who perished in the Titanic with his older son Harry. Widener was heir to the fortune amassed by his father P. A. B. Widener, who assembled one of the most important Gilded Age collections of Old Master paintings and decorative arts in his palatial mansion, Lynnewood Hall, outside of Philadelphia. Over 2,000 pieces from his collection were donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1940. George's younger son, George D. Widener, was also a significant collector, and bequeathed numerous magnificent objects to the Philadelphia Museum of Art including the spectacular mahogany commode by Thomas Chippendale from Raynham Park, Norfolk (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 289).

A PAIR OF GEORGE II MAHOGANY LIBRARY ARMCHAIRS

CIRCA 1755

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE II MAHOGANY LIBRARY ARMCHAIRS
CIRCA 1755
Each with flower-carved serpentine frame, covered in silk damask, the legs headed by anthemia, on foliate scroll feet, restorations (2)

Provenance

George D. Widener and by descent.

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Lot Essay

A chair from the same suite was sold from the collection of Arthur Leidesdorf, Sotheby & Co., London, 27-28 June 1974, lot 67 and is illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, Eighteenth Century English Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, 1983, p.42. This is now with the London trade. A matching settee belonging to Ruth Vanderbilt Twombly was sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 6-8 January 1955, lot 469.

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