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Lot Essay
These chairs are most probably by the firm of Paul Saunders. Saunders supplied two similar suites of seat furniture to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759) for Holkham Hall, Norfolk and to Thomas, 3rd Viscount Weymouth, later 1st Marquess of Bath (1734-1796) for Longleat, Wiltshire.
The Holkham library armchairs are designed en suite with the library table, and combine the French 'picturesque' fashion with antique elements in the contemporary 'Roman' style. Their serpentined and voluted arms are wrapped by Roman acanthus enrichments and their design relates to a 'French Chair' pattern that was added by Chippendale to the third edition of his Director, 1762 (pl. XIX). This same patterned leg featured on twelve blue leather-upholstered chairs supplied by Saunders in 1757 for Holkham's great room of entertainment that combined a sculpture gallery and library. The latter accompanied a pair of card-tables, a pair of settees and ten 'elbow' armchairs, whose arms followed the present pattern but lacked the antique flutes. The Holkham chairs were invoiced in June 1757 by Messrs. Saunders and Bradshaw and were richly carved to match 'a pattern chair' that had been supplied the previous year (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, p. 211, figs. 378-379 and J. Cornforth, 'French Style, English Mood', Country Life, 1 October 1992, p. 80, fig. 6).
The Longleat suite, like the side chairs of the Holkham suite, have slender arms and legs, yet employ the idiosyncratic use of the fluted legs with acanthus carving. The payments to Paul Saunders, of £556 15s in November 1757 and £300 in November 1759, are recorded in the 3rd Viscount Weymouth's bank account at Drummonds (C. Cator, 'Works of Art from Longleat', Christie's International Magazine, May/June 2002, pp. 69-78). A pair of armchairs attributed to Paul Saunders from Longleat sold Christie's, London, 13-14 June 2002, lot 338.
The Holkham library armchairs are designed en suite with the library table, and combine the French 'picturesque' fashion with antique elements in the contemporary 'Roman' style. Their serpentined and voluted arms are wrapped by Roman acanthus enrichments and their design relates to a 'French Chair' pattern that was added by Chippendale to the third edition of his Director, 1762 (pl. XIX). This same patterned leg featured on twelve blue leather-upholstered chairs supplied by Saunders in 1757 for Holkham's great room of entertainment that combined a sculpture gallery and library. The latter accompanied a pair of card-tables, a pair of settees and ten 'elbow' armchairs, whose arms followed the present pattern but lacked the antique flutes. The Holkham chairs were invoiced in June 1757 by Messrs. Saunders and Bradshaw and were richly carved to match 'a pattern chair' that had been supplied the previous year (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, p. 211, figs. 378-379 and J. Cornforth, 'French Style, English Mood', Country Life, 1 October 1992, p. 80, fig. 6).
The Longleat suite, like the side chairs of the Holkham suite, have slender arms and legs, yet employ the idiosyncratic use of the fluted legs with acanthus carving. The payments to Paul Saunders, of £556 15s in November 1757 and £300 in November 1759, are recorded in the 3rd Viscount Weymouth's bank account at Drummonds (C. Cator, 'Works of Art from Longleat', Christie's International Magazine, May/June 2002, pp. 69-78). A pair of armchairs attributed to Paul Saunders from Longleat sold Christie's, London, 13-14 June 2002, lot 338.