Lot Essay
The Liverpool Town Hall was executed to the designs of the architect James Wyatt (d.1813) and these chairs with their florid Grecian-scrolled frames, enriched with Roman acanthus and Grecian palms, reflected the style promoted by his son and nephew Philip and Benjamin Wyatt and discussed in George Smith's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, London, 1827. The chair rails incorporate the Corporation's 'Liver bird' crest within mottoed ribbon borders. They also bear the stamp of the upholsterer William Turner (d. 1839) who was recorded at Russell Place in 1811 before moving to Christian Street in 1835 (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 913). Part of a set of forty mahogany and red leather chairs were commissioned by the Corporation's Surveyor John Foster Junior (d.1846) and supplied in 1829 by Nicholas Morel of Great Marlborough Street. Morrel had recently been appointed King George IV's 'Upholsterer in Ordinary' and established his partnership with George Seddon (d. 1857) for the furnishing of Windsor Castle. The firm was paid £501.3.0 in August of that year for furnishing the town hall (J. Dean, 'Regency Furniture in Liverpool Town Hall', Furniture History, 1989, fig. 29).