Lot Essay
These chair-frames derive from Chinese export productions and relate to that illustrated by the architect William Chambers in his Designs of Chinese Buildings, 1757, pl. XIII. Their fan-pattern tablets relate closely to the pattern published in the 1790s by A. Hepplewhite & Co. and Thomas Sheraton. A set of three chairs of this pattern, likely to have been acquired by Luke Dillon, 2nd Lord Clonbrock, was sold at Christie's house sale at Clonbrock, Ireland, 1 November 1967, lot 122. Another closely related pair from the collection of the family of Joseph Smith (d. 1845) of Philadelphia, is illustrated J. G. Lee, Philadelphians and the China Trade, Pennsylvania, 1984, fig. 138. The fan-tablet back also features on related chairs acquired for the Marine Pavilion, Brighton, by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (G. Walkling, Antique Bamboo Furniture, London, 1979, fig. 16 and C. Musgrave, Regency Furniture, London, 1961, fig. 24A)