A PAIR OF EBONISED AND PARCEL-GILT MAHOGANY OPEN ARMCHAIRS

OF GEORGE I STYLE

細節

A PAIR OF EBONISED AND PARCEL-GILT MAHOGANY OPEN ARMCHAIRS
Of George I style
Each with a rounded rectangular padded back, outcurved arms and rectangular seat covered in close-nailed coral material, the arms with eaglehead terminals on downswept supports, the front seatrail centred by a cartouche with a scallop shell, on cabriole legs headed by shells and C-scrolls, on claw feet, previously with castors, ten angle-brackets replaced (2)

拍品專文

The design of these chairs is taken from the celebrated Houghton eagle suite, of which one pair was sold in the Houghton sale, in these Rooms, 8 December 1994, lot 130. The Houghton suite was supplied to Sir Robert Walpole, later 1st Earl of Orford (1676-1745) for the Marble Parlour at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, in the early 1730s. The chairs display Venus's acanthus-enriched shell badge within a scalloped cartouche on their frames, while the cabriole legs terminate in Jupiter's eagle-claws and the god's attendant eagles emerge from the serpentined arms.
One of the chairs from the Houghton eagle suite is illustrated in P. Macquoid, A History of English Furniture, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1908, pp. 32-33, figs. 28-9 and P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, p. 266, fig. 126.