CIRCA 1875, BY COTTIER & CO., POSSIBLY DESIGNED BY JOHN MOYR SMITH

A closely related ebonised chair by Cottier & Co. is in the collection of The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, of particular note is the near identical form of the front legs, which are clearly taken directly from the antique (accession no. W.89-1982; see also, P. ten-Doesschate Chue and M. Donnelly, Daniel Cottier: Designer; Decorator; Dealer, London, 2021, p. 64 pl. 50). As detailed in the museum's cataloguing text, the design has been traditionally associated with the architect and designer, John Moyr Smith, which, whilst not conclusively proven, is a plausible hypothesis.

A small number of these highly distinctive seats are known, an example of ostensibly the same design, apparently differing only in some of the finer detail of the decoration and by the use of brass-rail stretchers in place of the more sophisticated turned examples employed here, was sold 'Out Takes from the Collections of Stanley J. Seeger', Sotheby's Olympia, 13 December 2002, lot 223.