SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

The thrones, with their guardian lion-bodied and eagle-winged chimerae or griffin, derive in part from the Vatican's celebrated marble throne antiquity illustrated in Enio Quitino Visconti's, Museo Pio Clementino, Rome, 1782 (pl.XLIV). The latter, together with another sphynx-guarded throne, was sketched in 1795 by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham, and he is likely to have been behind the design of the related Carlton House seats, with sphynx guardians, supplied for George, Prince Regent, later George IV and invoiced in 1812 by the Mayfair cabinet-makers Messrs Marsh and Tatham. These sphynx seats later inspired the related homage throne executed for Queen Victoria's 1838 coronation ( J.Roberts, et al. Royal Treasures; A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London, 2002, no 89).