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Lot Essay
This most interesting chair pattern is the last manifestation of a design that originates in a set of chairs at Hampton Court Palace with a closely similar back, and a variant of the hoof foot. Although traditionally identified with a payment of 1717 to Richard Roberts for supplying 'eighteen chairs with bending backs and girt web bottoms for His Majesty's dining room', these may actually be of circa 1725 (See Adam Bowett, 'The India-backed chair 1715-1740', Apollo, January 2003, pp. 3-9). That set has carved 'H' stretchers and a tapering square seat, whereas this pair has a later stouter balloon design of seat, with drop-in squab.
A more elaborate set of four walnut chairs of similar design was sold from the Leverhulme collection in the 1920s (The Anderson Galleries, New York, The Art Collections of the Late Viscount Leverhulme, 9th-1 3th February 1926, lot 14). Another is photographed at Chastleton House, Oxfordshire (Country Life, February 1919, figure 4, p. 121), and a related chair with stuffed overseat was at Coleshill House (Country Life, August 1919, figure 13, p. 145).
A more elaborate set of four walnut chairs of similar design was sold from the Leverhulme collection in the 1920s (The Anderson Galleries, New York, The Art Collections of the Late Viscount Leverhulme, 9th-1 3th February 1926, lot 14). Another is photographed at Chastleton House, Oxfordshire (Country Life, February 1919, figure 4, p. 121), and a related chair with stuffed overseat was at Coleshill House (Country Life, August 1919, figure 13, p. 145).