ATTRIBUTED TO MOREL AND HUGHES, CIRCA 1820

Nicolas Morel and Robert Hughes were partners in a cabinet-making and upholstery business at 13 Great Marlborough Street, London, from 1805 until 1826. Their commissions included work at Carlton House, London, for the Prince of Wales, and later the Prince Regent and for many aristocratic clients. The chair-pattern appears to evolve from that of the palm-wrapped drawing-room suite that Morel is likely to have provided for Southill, Bedfordshire, during the period he was employed by Samuel Whitbread II from 1798 to 1813 (see F. Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p. 44 and 45). The latter have also been compared to Morel's 'antique' style seat furniture supplied in 1806 for Weston Park, Staffordshire (P. Rogers, 'The Remodelling of Weston Park', Furniture History, 1987, pp. 11-34, and fig. 6). Furniture supplied by Morel and Seddon (the later firm formed in 1827 with George Seddon) for King George IV in 1828 also shares some similarities to the present lot, particularly in the shaped joints of the armrest and the backrest (see H. Roberts, For the King’ Pleasure: The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV’s Apartments at Windsor Castle, 2001, p. 230, fig. 272).