MID-18TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY WILLIAM HALLETT

These mahogany side chairs, with boldly carved zoomorphic legs, were formerly in the collection of the Duke of Leeds at Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire and a single chair from the set was illustrated in Country Life (MacQuoid, loc. cit.); the set was sold by 'His Grace The Duke of Leeds, Removed from Hornby Castle, Yorkshire', Christie's, London, 10 June 1920 and following day, lot 87 (to Moss Harris for £462). These chairs are upholstered in the same associated 18th-century knotted-crewelwork found on other seat-furniture from Hornby Castle, for example a walnut settee (ibid., fig. 3). However, in the period from the 1920 Christie's sale to 1962, when the Hornby Castle chairs were sold again at Sotheby's, the panels of the upholstery had been reorderd (presumably during restoration or cleaning).

The Hornby Castle chairs originally may have been made for the 4th Duke of Leeds (1713-89) at Kiveton Park, Yorkshire, and brought to Hornby between 1773 – when the 5th Duke, then Marquess of Carmarthen, married the heiress of Hornby, Baroness Conyers – and 1811 when Kiveton was demolished (Wood, loc. cit., p. 377). As they cannot be positively identified in the 1838 and 1839 Hornby Castle inventories, which describe multiple sets of chairs as ‘Carved & gilt mah’y Chairs with stuff’t seat & back cover’d ensuite & chintz covers’, it is possible they were commissioned by Lady Conyers’ father, the 4th Earl of Holderness (1718-78) in circa 1740-50 for his house at 4 Whitehall Yard.

The Hornby Castle chairs are closely related to a set of six chairs formerly in the collection of John Shales Barrington at Barrington Hall, Essex, and later at Bradfield Hall, Berkshire (ibid., p. 365, no. 31). The 'Bradfield Hall chairs' have been described as ‘possibly by William Hallett (c. 1707-1781)’ of Gt. Newport Street, Long Acre, London, undeniably based on their profound and accomplished carving, for which Hallet was particularly celebrated in this period. The front and back legs of the Hornby Castle chairs are of identical pattern to the Bradfield Hall examples, suggesting they were made by the same workshop (ibid., p. 377). Interestingly, if the present chairs were made for Lord Holderness, then he was paying significant sums to several leading London cabinet-makers, including William Vile (initially Hallett’s journeyman), James Whittle and the partnership of Paul Saunders/George Smith Bradshaw (ibid., p. 378), so such a commisson would sit happily within his known pattern of patronage.

The superb early quality of these chairs, their striking design and illustrious provenance would have appealed to the renowned New York connoiseur Emily Hesslein. The collection she assembled at her sumptuous New York townhouse on East 74th Street was remarkable both for its quality and focus, with the rooms centred around superb mid-18th century English mahogany furniture. The interiors were recorded in a series of photographs, three of which show the present chairs in situ (see illustration).

Similar carved hairy legs are also found on a suite of seat-furniture, which included armchairs, sold in the Christie’s 1920 sale as the following lot to these chairs (lot 88), and were also acquired by Moss Harris, who sold the set to Lord Leverhulme on 17 June 1920, and on a set of six chairs en suite with the Bradfield Hall chairs, probably the set sold by Lt. Col. W. Selby-Lowndes, Christie’s, London, 2 May 1946, lot 119 (ibid., vol. II, p. 1043, nos. X 3926-3932; vol. I, p. 374, fig. 249). A set of gilt-gesso armchairs with the same carved hairy legs is in the Picture Gallery at Arundel Castle, West Sussex; these were probably made for the 8th Duke of Norfolk, and are listed in that room in the 1777 household inventory (J. Martin Robinson, Arundel Castle: A Seat of the Duke of Norfolk E.M., n.d., pp. 77-78, fig. 74). Furthermore, there is a mahogany side table previously at Clandon Park, Surrey, and a pair of tables, also originally mahogany but now painted white and part-gilt, formerly in the Clermont Club (sold 'Ven House, Somerset', Christie’s house sale, 21-22 June 1999, lot 287), that also feature related hairy legs and paw feet.