.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These library chairs are notable examples of a highly fashionable pattern in the George II/III 'Chinese' manner. Their fretted-trellis backs derive from the type of patterns published in W. Halfpenny's Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice (1750), E. Hoppuss' The Gentleman and Builder's Repository (1760), and J. Crunden and J. Morris' The Carpenter's Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates (1765). The octagonal form of the central tablet to the backs of these chairs is featured on a Chinese chair pattern in Thomas Chippendale's Director, 1754, pl. XXV. Chippendale considered these chairs 'very proper for a Lady's Dressing-Room; especially if it is hung with India paper...They have commonly cane bottoms, with loose cushions'. The name 'cockpen' entered the vernacular in the 19th century and seems to originate from Cockpen Church, Midlothian, where similar chairs were made for the family pew of the Earls of Dalhousie.
Chairs of this pattern were supplied by Chippendale to the 4th Duke of Beaufort for the India-papered rooms at Badminton House, Gloucester (P. Macquoid, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, p. 258, pl. 245); at the same time Chippendale is likely to have supplied the same patterned chairs for the India-papered apartments at Saltram, Devon (C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid Georgian, London, 1956, p. 126). A set of six chairs were supplied to Admiral George Edgcumbe, 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (d. 1795) either for Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall or 47 Berkeley Square, London, and were subsequently at Mount Congreve, Co. Waterford, Ireland. A closely related pair of chairs, though with straight Chinese fret angle brackets as opposed to arched angle brackets, were supplied to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries (1699-1768) for Dumfries House, Ayrshire, probably by the Edinburgh cabinet-maker Alexander Peter in 1759 (see Christie's London sale catalogue, 12 July 2007, Dumfries House: A Chippendale Commission, vol. I, lot 132).
Chairs of this pattern were supplied by Chippendale to the 4th Duke of Beaufort for the India-papered rooms at Badminton House, Gloucester (P. Macquoid, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, p. 258, pl. 245); at the same time Chippendale is likely to have supplied the same patterned chairs for the India-papered apartments at Saltram, Devon (C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid Georgian, London, 1956, p. 126). A set of six chairs were supplied to Admiral George Edgcumbe, 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (d. 1795) either for Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall or 47 Berkeley Square, London, and were subsequently at Mount Congreve, Co. Waterford, Ireland. A closely related pair of chairs, though with straight Chinese fret angle brackets as opposed to arched angle brackets, were supplied to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries (1699-1768) for Dumfries House, Ayrshire, probably by the Edinburgh cabinet-maker Alexander Peter in 1759 (see Christie's London sale catalogue, 12 July 2007, Dumfries House: A Chippendale Commission, vol. I, lot 132).