ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HALLETT, CIRCA 1740-50

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE II NEEDLEWORK-UPHOLSTERED MAHOGANY LIBRARY ARMCHAIRS
ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HALLETT, CIRCA 1740-50
Each worked in gros and petit point depicting St. George or St. Michael slaying the dragon, the seats with beasts in a landscape, the arms carved with pendant husk chains, the front cabriole legs as hairy lion legs and paw feet, the back legs plain with pad feet
38 in. (95.52 cm.) high, 31 in. (78.4 cm.) wide, 28 in. (71.1 cm.) deep

Provenance

Part of a larger suite possibly supplied to Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness (d. 1778) for his London mansion at 4 Whitehall Yard,
Thence by descent to his daughter, Lady Conyers who married Francis Godolphin Osborne, Marquess of Camarthen and 5th Duke of Leeds (1715-1799) at Hornby Castle, Yorkshire;
Or, alternatively, supplied to the 5th Duke's father, Thomas Osborne, 4th Duke of Leeds (1715-1789) for Kiveton House, Yorkshire and brought to Hornby between 1773 and 1811 when Kiveton was demolished,
By descent at Hornby Castle, Yorkshire.
[Possibly] two of the six chairs, together with six side chairs and a settee, sold from Hornby Castle, Christie's, 20 June 1920, lot 88 (to M. Harris).
Acquired by Lord Leverhulme from Moss Harris on 17 June 1920,
In his collection until sold, The Art Collections of the Late Viscount Leverhulme, Anderson Galleries, New York, 9-13 February 1926, Part V, lots 315-317 (to Frank Partridge, incorrectly illustrated as duplicate lots 369-371).
The pair: With Arthur S. Vernay, New York.
Acquired from the above by Mrs. Edward F. Hutton,
In her collection until sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 20 March 1965, lots 165 and 166.
Acquired by Annie Laurie Aitken (1900-1984) and Russell Barnett Aitken (1910-2002) from the above sale.

Literature

P. Macquoid, `XVIII Century Furniture at Hornby Castle', Country Life, 27 September 1913, p. 14, fig. 6 (shown covered in silk damask which was laid over the needlework coverings).
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1927, vol. I, p. 234, fig. 82.
R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol. I, p. 267, fig. 128.
L. Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2008, vol. I, p. 377, figs. 257-258 and vol. II, p. 1043, fig. 658.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

HORNBY CASTLE
Six armchairs of this model were sold from Hornby Castle in the 1920 sale together with six matching side chairs and a 'settee' where they were bought by Moss Harris on behalf of Viscount Leverhulme and later sold following his death in 1926 (the settee described as a 'double scroll-end couch' of 'day-bed type' when resold in 1926). If the present pair comprises part of the six armchairs from the 1920 sale, the remaining four armchairs may be those which were later sold at Sotheby's, London, 6 February 1970, two of which were subsequently offered at Sotheby's, on 5 July 1995, lot 34 (but unsold). The side chairs from the 1920 sale may be the ones that reappeared in the sale of Mrs. Emily Hesslein, Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1962, lot 140 said to have come from the Duke of Leeds at Bradfield House (a mysterious attribution as there is no recognized connection between the Duke and the house).

The suite is first recognized at Hornby Castle in the early 20th century with the publication of a Country Life article of 1913. However, their eighteenth century origin remain a mystery. Inventories of Hornby Castle dating to 1778, 1838, and 1839 (Yorkshire Archaeological Society) fail to identify the suite with any certainty although three 'mahogany double head' couches are listed in the Library in the 1838 inventory, at least one of which may be the matching settee to the suite.

Two possibilities exist regarding the suite's original commission. The first suggests that the suite was originally made for the 4th Duke of Leeds (d. 1789) for his family seat at Kiveton Park, Yorkshire, where James Gibbs was consulted in the 1740s at the time the chairs would have been made. If this was the case, then the chairs would have been brought to Hornby sometime between 1773, when the 5th Duke (then Marquess of Carmarthen) married the heiress of Hornby, Lady Conyers, and 1811 when Kiveton was demolished. The alternate scenario suggests that it was the 4th Earl of Holderness (d. 1778), father to Lady Conyers, who may have commissioned the suite for his London house in Whitehall and where several major cabinet-makers are recorded including William Hallett and William Vile. A detailed discussion of the group and the Hornby Castle suite in particular can be found in Lucy Wood's The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (see literature).

THE MAKER
The chairs were most definitely made in the same workshop as the long set from Barrington Hall, Essex which is presently in the collections of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Both sets display the same distinctive anatomical animal legs. Lucy Wood suggests an attribution to William Hallett for the group. Hallett was known to have worked with John Sanderson, the architect at Barrington Hall, on other projects at Kirlington Park and Langley Park. Lord Holderness's payment to Hallett was relatively modest and post-date the latter's retirement in 1750 which implies a late payment.

Lucy Wood cites the same pattern animal leg on a group of side tables with Hercules masked frieze which compares to a Matthias Lock drawing, as well as a related set of giltwood armchairs at Arundel Castle which were recorded there as early as 1777, but was possibly originally supplied to the Duke of Norfolk's Worksop Manor (ibid., vol. I, pp. 378-379). Finally, a stool in Leverhulme's collection was made up from two legs of the Hornby/Barrington pattern.

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