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Lot Essay
The French-fashioned, squab-cushioned bergères are bobbin-railed in the George IV 'Elizabethan' or 'Old English' manner, as popularised in Thomas King's Modern Style of Cabinet Work Exemplified (1829) and Specimens of Furniture in the Elizabethan and Louis Quatorze Styles (1835). 'Bobbin' enriched furniture supplied by Gillows features in the Estimate Sketch Books as early as 1823, and a design of 6 October 1827, no. 3629, was for a model in rosewood. An 'easy chair' was amongst the furniture supplied by Gillows and listed in the 1840 inventory of Mere Hall, Cheshire.
The Anglo-French firm of Charles Mellier & Co., Albemarle Street, was among London's most fashionable cabinet-makers and decorators in the later 19thcentury, refurbishing or embellishing interiors that included the Grosvenor Square, London and Manderston, Berwickshire properties of Sir James Miller, and also fitting up the dining-room at Farmleigh, a Guinness home near Dublin. Mellier must have reupholstered or otherwise restored the present chairs in the late 19th century, as with other labelled items at Raynham.
The Anglo-French firm of Charles Mellier & Co., Albemarle Street, was among London's most fashionable cabinet-makers and decorators in the later 19thcentury, refurbishing or embellishing interiors that included the Grosvenor Square, London and Manderston, Berwickshire properties of Sir James Miller, and also fitting up the dining-room at Farmleigh, a Guinness home near Dublin. Mellier must have reupholstered or otherwise restored the present chairs in the late 19th century, as with other labelled items at Raynham.