EARLY 18TH CENTURY

These chairs were almost certainly commissioned by Sir William Bateman, later 1st Viscount Batemen and Baron Culmore (d. 1744) of Shobdon Court, Herefordshire and Totteridge, Hertfordshire around the time of his marriage in 1720 to Lady Anne Spencer, the granddaughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Sir William had succeeded two years previously to the Herefordshire estates of his father, who had served as London's Lord Mayor and whose classical villa of 'Shobdon' had recently featured in C. Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus (1717).
The chairs correspond in style to the celebrated golden marriage-chest bearing William and Anne's love-knotted cypher embossed on a shell-decked ‘Roman’ sarcophagus (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, W.33-1948). The bulbous form of the chest and its carved 'strapwork' decoration were undoubtedly inspired by the work of Jean Bérain and André-Charles Boulle; their influential engraved designs were published in 1659-1690 and 1707-1730 respectively. This chest is thought to have been supplied by the court cabinet-maker James Moore the elder (d. 1726) of Nottingham Court. (https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O7990/the-bateman-chest-chest-moore-james-the/ Accessed 15 May 2020). Since James Moore, father and son, had recently been chosen in place of the architect Sir John Vanburgh to design the furnishings for the magnificent Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, and the childhood home of Lady Anne, it is likely that they too designed these Bateman chairs. The chairs, which may have been upholstered around 1900 in their present Italian silk velvet are illustrated in situ beside the Bateman chest in a Country Life photograph of 1906. The fabric was probably woven in Florence; a closely related damask pattern material dated 1650-70 is found on an Italian chair illustrated in M.C.C.D. Devoti, Musei civici di Modena. La collezione Gandini. Tessuti dal XVII al XIX secolo, Modena, 1993, p. 157, no. 176.
This pair was included in the set of six side chairs sold in the 1926 house sale as lot 81, when bought by Frank Partridge. The famous gilt-gesso 'Bateman' chest was sold as lot 84 [also bought by Frank Partridge].