CIRCA 1815

This ‘Chinese’ chair frame, with its arched back, corresponds to one illustrated by the architect William Chambers in Designs of Chinese Buildings, 1757, pl. xiii, as being suitable for Chinese garden buildings. Similar chairs appeared to form part of early schemes for the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, including in a design for the west wall of the Music Room by Frederick Crace, circa 1817 (with a square back) and one for the Blue Drawing Room by Augustus Pugin, prior to 1821 (with stretchers between the legs; J. Morley, The Making of the Royal Pavilion Brighton, London, 1984, endpapers and p. 123, fig. 105).