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Lot Essay
The comfortable library easy chairs, with 'Apollo' palm-wreathed arms, are designed in the George 1V Grecian manner. Although most probably commisioned by John Hay Mackenzie Esq., of New Hall and Cromarty, following his marriage to Anne, daughter of Sir James Gibson Craig in 1828, it is certainly possible that these chairs may have been inherited through the female line from George Granville, Lord Gower, later 2nd Duke of Sutherland. If so, they could well have formed part of the Grecian furnishings he introduced for Lilleshall Hall, Shropshire.
The distinctive reeded and turned legs relate to the 'Improved Recumbent Easy Chair' pattern patented by Robert Daws, of 17 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square in 1827. This model was well-known in the first half of the 19th century and is illustrated in J. C. Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture, London, 1839, p. 1057, fig. 1913, with an attribution to Daws. Examples of this model of chair, all bearing his patented stamp and some with a label of instructions for use, are recorded, including that illustrated in Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 176, fig. 283, as well as those sold at Christie's New York, 16 October 1998, lot 285 ($17,250) and 21 October 1999, lots 262-3.
The distinctive reeded and turned legs relate to the 'Improved Recumbent Easy Chair' pattern patented by Robert Daws, of 17 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square in 1827. This model was well-known in the first half of the 19th century and is illustrated in J. C. Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture, London, 1839, p. 1057, fig. 1913, with an attribution to Daws. Examples of this model of chair, all bearing his patented stamp and some with a label of instructions for use, are recorded, including that illustrated in Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 176, fig. 283, as well as those sold at Christie's New York, 16 October 1998, lot 285 ($17,250) and 21 October 1999, lots 262-3.