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Lot Essay
These elegant armchairs are inspired by the 'antique' style promoted by Napoleon’s court architects Percier and Fontaine in their Recueil de Decorations Intérieures, 1801 and adopted by Thomas Hope for a chair for his Duchess Street mansion, which was later illustrated in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. XXII. They are closely related to a suite of chairs executed by the fashionable cabinet-makers Morel & Hughes for the 1st Earl of Bradford as part of the extensive refurbishing of Weston Park, Staffordshire, in the early 19th century (see: P. Rogers, 'A Regency Interior: The Remodelling of Weston Park,' in Furniture History, 1987, pp. 11-34, fig. 7 and M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1820, rev. ed., 1948, p. 84, fig. 46).
Another suite of strikingly similar armchairs was commissioned from Morel and Hughes by either the 13th Earl of Clanricarde (d. 1808), who succeeded his brother in 1797, or his son the 1st Marquess of Clanricarde (d. 1874). The suite descended through the 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (d. 1916) into the collection of the 6th Earl of Harewood at Chesterfield House (see: 'Chesterfield House, Mayfair,' Country Life, 25 February 1922, p. 240, fig. 7). Examples from this suite were sold Christie's, London, 28 June 1951, lot 45 and again Christie's, London, 29 November 1984, lot 58 and 6 July 1989, lot 49.
Another suite of strikingly similar armchairs was commissioned from Morel and Hughes by either the 13th Earl of Clanricarde (d. 1808), who succeeded his brother in 1797, or his son the 1st Marquess of Clanricarde (d. 1874). The suite descended through the 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (d. 1916) into the collection of the 6th Earl of Harewood at Chesterfield House (see: 'Chesterfield House, Mayfair,' Country Life, 25 February 1922, p. 240, fig. 7). Examples from this suite were sold Christie's, London, 28 June 1951, lot 45 and again Christie's, London, 29 November 1984, lot 58 and 6 July 1989, lot 49.