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Lot Essay
The Palladian Thornes House, Wakefield was built by James Milnes (d.1805), a wealthy cloth merchant, who employed the Yorkshire architect John Carr (d.1807) between 1779 - 81 and at the same time laid out the surrounding parkland. Milnes' fortune was enhanced in 1778 when he married Mary Busk, daughter and co-heiress to another successful Leeds merchant and reputedly gained a dowry of more than £100,000. Carr's front elevation and plan for Thornes was included in George Richardson's New Vitruvius Britannicus in 1802, pls. 51 - 53, and Richardson claimed that Thornes was one of Carr's favourite designs. The rooms displayed `delicate Adamesque plasterwork', and the furniture would have been designed to complement the architecture (B. Wragg, The Life and Works of John Carr of York, York, 2000, p.213, and pls. 231 and 232). The house passed by descent to Benjamin Gaskell, and it was his son, James, who subsequently took the name Milnes-Gaskell.
The 'cabriolet' chairs with medallion backs are designed in the George III French antique fashion of the 1770s promoted by leading neoclassical architects such as Robert Adam (d. 1792) and James Wyatt (d. 1813). The chairs' oval backs, framed by `antique' flutes and its out-turned arms correspond to Adam's 1779 design for a set of armchairs for Sir Abraham Hume's house on Hill Street, which is in itself a more elaborate version of the chairs supplied in 1777 to Sir Robert Child which prominently displayed a similar guilloche pattern to the seat rails ( Eileen Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London 1963, pp. 96 - 97 and pls. 121 and 122). Much of the furniture at Child's Adam-designed Osterley was supplied by the fashionable firm of William and John Linnell of Berekely Square, London.
The stamp of B.Harmer has been noted on a substantial group of fashionable and high quality seat furniture dating from circa 1795 to 1810, although his identity remains a mystery. He doesn't appear to have owned a workshop or sold directly to the public so may have simply been an outworker employed on a sub-contracted or ad-hoc basis. Among items identified are hall chairs at Petworth, a magnificent suite of dolphin seat furniture attributed to Marsh and Tatham from Powderham Castle (sold at Christie's, London, 5 July, 1990, lots 50 and 51 and on 5 December, 1991, lots 222 and 223), and an X-framed chair corresponding exactly to a design published in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807).
Other furniture with Thornes provenance includes a pair of George III painted satinwood dining-room pedestals with silver plate vases by Boulton and Fothergill bearing the arms of James Milnes and his wife Mary Busk, that must date to 1778 or soon after. The vases
show the influence of James Wyatt in their form and ornament, and Wyatt worked closely with Boulton's firm. They were sold Christie's, London, 10 April 1975, lot 49 (£1900) and subsequently exhibited by Partridge in 2007; a pair of George III satinwood and marquetry demi-lune card tables and another similar card table sold Bonhams, London 11 March 2015, lots 124 and 125.
While it is not possible to say with certainty who supplied the chairs offered here, they conform to prevailing fashion and James Milnes evidently patronised forward-thinking cabinet-makers in Yorkshire and probably also London, perhaps guided by Carr who is known to have introduced clients to leading London cabinet-makers such as Chippendale and Cobb; a case could be made for many. The names Milne and Gaskell are listed among the clients of Gillows, the important 18th century cabinet-makers based in Lancaster and London. The presence of papier-mache here, in the guilloche on the chairs' seat rails, plus the fashionable design and high quality, imply that they must be the product of a workshop large enough to be able to take on a range of disciplines. James Wyatt, already mentioned in connection with James Milnes' silver vases, also designed furniture for the Gillows, including a set of dining-chairs supplied to Sir Thomas Egerton for Heaton House, Manchester in 1774 (Susan Stuart Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730 - 1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, p. 158 - 159, pl. 108 & 109). It is possible therefore that the seat furniture for Thornes was commissioned from Gillows with Harmer sub-contracted as the chair-maker.
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The 'cabriolet' chairs with medallion backs are designed in the George III French antique fashion of the 1770s promoted by leading neoclassical architects such as Robert Adam (d. 1792) and James Wyatt (d. 1813). The chairs' oval backs, framed by `antique' flutes and its out-turned arms correspond to Adam's 1779 design for a set of armchairs for Sir Abraham Hume's house on Hill Street, which is in itself a more elaborate version of the chairs supplied in 1777 to Sir Robert Child which prominently displayed a similar guilloche pattern to the seat rails ( Eileen Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London 1963, pp. 96 - 97 and pls. 121 and 122). Much of the furniture at Child's Adam-designed Osterley was supplied by the fashionable firm of William and John Linnell of Berekely Square, London.
The stamp of B.Harmer has been noted on a substantial group of fashionable and high quality seat furniture dating from circa 1795 to 1810, although his identity remains a mystery. He doesn't appear to have owned a workshop or sold directly to the public so may have simply been an outworker employed on a sub-contracted or ad-hoc basis. Among items identified are hall chairs at Petworth, a magnificent suite of dolphin seat furniture attributed to Marsh and Tatham from Powderham Castle (sold at Christie's, London, 5 July, 1990, lots 50 and 51 and on 5 December, 1991, lots 222 and 223), and an X-framed chair corresponding exactly to a design published in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807).
Other furniture with Thornes provenance includes a pair of George III painted satinwood dining-room pedestals with silver plate vases by Boulton and Fothergill bearing the arms of James Milnes and his wife Mary Busk, that must date to 1778 or soon after. The vases
show the influence of James Wyatt in their form and ornament, and Wyatt worked closely with Boulton's firm. They were sold Christie's, London, 10 April 1975, lot 49 (£1900) and subsequently exhibited by Partridge in 2007; a pair of George III satinwood and marquetry demi-lune card tables and another similar card table sold Bonhams, London 11 March 2015, lots 124 and 125.
While it is not possible to say with certainty who supplied the chairs offered here, they conform to prevailing fashion and James Milnes evidently patronised forward-thinking cabinet-makers in Yorkshire and probably also London, perhaps guided by Carr who is known to have introduced clients to leading London cabinet-makers such as Chippendale and Cobb; a case could be made for many. The names Milne and Gaskell are listed among the clients of Gillows, the important 18th century cabinet-makers based in Lancaster and London. The presence of papier-mache here, in the guilloche on the chairs' seat rails, plus the fashionable design and high quality, imply that they must be the product of a workshop large enough to be able to take on a range of disciplines. James Wyatt, already mentioned in connection with James Milnes' silver vases, also designed furniture for the Gillows, including a set of dining-chairs supplied to Sir Thomas Egerton for Heaton House, Manchester in 1774 (Susan Stuart Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730 - 1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, p. 158 - 159, pl. 108 & 109). It is possible therefore that the seat furniture for Thornes was commissioned from Gillows with Harmer sub-contracted as the chair-maker.
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