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Lot Essay
These chairs correspond to patterns published in the third edition of Thomas Chippendale's Director (pl. X-XIII) and dated 1753-1761 as well as 'Parlour Chair' patterns published by rival cabinet-makers/designers John Mayhew and William Ince in Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, plates IX and X. The design most closely relates to a pen and ink drawing executed by Chippendale for the third edition of the Director as reproduced in P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, pl. 100. The chairs are predominantly designed in the 'French' or rococo manner but incorporate gothic-inspired features such as the ogee arches to the back.
Aside from the exceptional quality of the carving, an attribution to Chippendale is supported by an unusual design feature. The uprights of the chair backs have been later veneered where the seat rail meets the back legs - almost certainly to conceal brass-nailing damage from the original upholstery, which, in keeping with the intended design, passed over the side rail and probably terminated in a key pattern. This treatment is something of a leitmotif of Chippendale’s neoclassical phase, appearing, inter alia, on the set of fourteen dining chairs supplied in 1769 to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, for Shelburne House, Berkeley Square, London (eight sold Christie’s, London, 10 July 2014, lot 31 and subsequently Sotheby’s, Paris, 5 November 2025, lot 77). Those chairs also share the same distinctive back legs with club feet. In addition, the presence of batten-carrying holes in the seat rails, while not exclusive to Chippendale, is characteristic of his workshop practice.
It is unsurprising that these chairs once formed part of the Parker Knoll collection, long recognized as exemplary models of Gothic-inspired English ‘rococo’ chair design. Parker Knoll was the name adopted in 1931 by the furniture firm founded by Frederick Parker in 1869. These chairs belonged to the remarkable assembly of ‘pattern’ chairs that Parker accumulated as an educational resource for his craftsmen. Numbering over three hundred examples, spanning centuries of chair design, the collection served as an unparalleled in-house reference for copying forms, studying construction, and drawing inspiration. While around half of the collection was sold in 1997, the remainder is now owned by the Furniture Makers’ Company and is on long-term loan to the London Metropolitan Museum.
A single armchair formerly in the collection of Percy Macquoid, Esq. features the same pattern back and is illustrated in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture: The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, fig.186. The chair was later sold, the Property of a Lady, Christie's London, 16 November 1989, lot 37. A set of ten chairs of the same basic design but lacking some of the details to the carving was sold Sotheby's, London, 17 November 1989, lot 70.
Aside from the exceptional quality of the carving, an attribution to Chippendale is supported by an unusual design feature. The uprights of the chair backs have been later veneered where the seat rail meets the back legs - almost certainly to conceal brass-nailing damage from the original upholstery, which, in keeping with the intended design, passed over the side rail and probably terminated in a key pattern. This treatment is something of a leitmotif of Chippendale’s neoclassical phase, appearing, inter alia, on the set of fourteen dining chairs supplied in 1769 to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, for Shelburne House, Berkeley Square, London (eight sold Christie’s, London, 10 July 2014, lot 31 and subsequently Sotheby’s, Paris, 5 November 2025, lot 77). Those chairs also share the same distinctive back legs with club feet. In addition, the presence of batten-carrying holes in the seat rails, while not exclusive to Chippendale, is characteristic of his workshop practice.
It is unsurprising that these chairs once formed part of the Parker Knoll collection, long recognized as exemplary models of Gothic-inspired English ‘rococo’ chair design. Parker Knoll was the name adopted in 1931 by the furniture firm founded by Frederick Parker in 1869. These chairs belonged to the remarkable assembly of ‘pattern’ chairs that Parker accumulated as an educational resource for his craftsmen. Numbering over three hundred examples, spanning centuries of chair design, the collection served as an unparalleled in-house reference for copying forms, studying construction, and drawing inspiration. While around half of the collection was sold in 1997, the remainder is now owned by the Furniture Makers’ Company and is on long-term loan to the London Metropolitan Museum.
A single armchair formerly in the collection of Percy Macquoid, Esq. features the same pattern back and is illustrated in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture: The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, fig.186. The chair was later sold, the Property of a Lady, Christie's London, 16 November 1989, lot 37. A set of ten chairs of the same basic design but lacking some of the details to the carving was sold Sotheby's, London, 17 November 1989, lot 70.