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Lot Essay
This 'Roman' stool pattern, displaying Venus shells on scale-imbricated trusses terminating in Bacchic lion paws, was conceived in 1737 to accompany two giltwood throne-like armchairs supplied to George II for the Queen’s Withdrawing Room, Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex (ed. D. Shawe-Taylor, The First Georgians: Art & Monarchy 1714-1760, London, 2014, pp. 210-211). The suite of seat-furniture was almost certainly designed by the architect-designer, William Kent (d. 1748), for Queen Caroline; an illustration by Kent, The Marriage of William, Prince of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal, at St James’s Palace, 1734, includes a sketch of one of the Royal stools (ibid., p. 211, fig. 49). Twenty-three of the original set of twenty-four stools by the Long Acre chair-maker Henry Williams (d.1758) are divided between Hampton Court Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Williams' 1737 invoice is documented in the Lord Chamberlain’s accounts as;
`Bills, 1 yr to Micas 1737. Henry Williams, Joyner. 2 large arm chair frames finely carved & gilt £18.24 Sq. Stool frames suitable £192’ (ed. S. Weber, William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, p. 480).
A single stool, similarly stamped to those at Holyroodhouse and probably part of the Royal commission, is at Rienzi, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (ibid., p. 466, f/n 115). Two stools of this design but unstamped form part of the Benjamin Disraeli collection at Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire, and another was with Mallet in 2001 (R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, London, 1955, fig. 217; The National Trust, Hughenden Manor, 1988). Another, with accompanying armchair, is in the collection of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (Weber, ibid., p. 480, fig. 18.16).
`Bills, 1 yr to Micas 1737. Henry Williams, Joyner. 2 large arm chair frames finely carved & gilt £18.24 Sq. Stool frames suitable £192’ (ed. S. Weber, William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, p. 480).
A single stool, similarly stamped to those at Holyroodhouse and probably part of the Royal commission, is at Rienzi, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (ibid., p. 466, f/n 115). Two stools of this design but unstamped form part of the Benjamin Disraeli collection at Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire, and another was with Mallet in 2001 (R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, London, 1955, fig. 217; The National Trust, Hughenden Manor, 1988). Another, with accompanying armchair, is in the collection of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (Weber, ibid., p. 480, fig. 18.16).