DESIGNED BY SIR EDWIN LUTYENS, CIRCA 1900

Details

A PAIR OF LATE VICTORIAN OAK LADDERBACK ARMCHAIRS
DESIGNED BY SIR EDWIN LUTYENS, CIRCA 1900
With undulating horizontal splats and rounded finials, with flattened outswept arm supports with traces of ebonising and replaced rush seats, on turned tapered legs with pad feet joined by turned stretchers
24½ in. (61.5 cm.) wide (2)

Provenance

Probably designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens either for Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life, for Deanery Garden, Berkshire, or Tom Blackburn, for Little Thakeham, Sussex circa 1900.
Anonymous sale, Bonhams, Bath, 28 April 2003, lot 338.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis This lot is subject to Collection and Storage charges

Lot Essay

Lutyen's draft design for these armchairs appears on a sheet inscribed Bedstead for Edward Hudson Esq., and, above the chair itself Armchair in scale no.56 Jan 7 stand (?). The designs were obviously realised by 1903, when side chairs of this model are seen in situ in the interiors of Deanery Garden, published in Country Life in 1903 - the year Hudson sold it. As Hussey remarked of Deanery Garden 'Mr Lutyens never designed a more perfect house or a more charming garden'.
The model was again introduced by Lutyens as side chairs, armchairs and a triple-chairback settee for Little Thakeham, Sussex. Designed for Tom Blackburn around 1902 and completed by 1904, at a total cost of £13,000, the chairs at Little Thakeham are all visible in the Country Life interiors of 28 August 1909 (G. Stamp, Edwin Lutyens Country Houses, London, 2001, pp.110,113,115).

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