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Lot Essay
The combination of ash seat-rails, scroll toprail terminals and the vestigial 'owl's eye' splat suggests that these chairs may be Scottish. Still more unusual is the upturned foot, reminiscent of the Irish three-toed foot but even closer to those on two very distinctive pieces of furniture. These are the silver table from the 50 Years of Collecting sale, Christie's, London, 14 May 2003, lot 60, and a cabinet-on-stand supplied to Elizabeth, Countess of Warwick and sold Christie's, London, 9 July 1998, lot 15.
A set of more richly-carved chairs, of this pattern and with similarly foliated legs, was formerly in the collection of Silvia (née Marion) Burrell, daughter of Sir William Burrell, founder of Glasgow's Burrell Collection, Sotheby's, London, 22 May 1992, lot 226. They were catalogued as 'red walnut' but were probably mahogany. Their provenance may support a Scottish manufacture.
These parlour chairs are designed in the mid-18th century 'picturesque' fashion popularised by Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste, issued by the London Society of Upholsterers in 1760. Their serpentined frames, voluted crest-rails and truss-scrolled feet terminating in trefoils also relate to a pattern for a chair-back settee featured in the 1761 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of Lancaster (L. Boynton, (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 243).
A set of more richly-carved chairs, of this pattern and with similarly foliated legs, was formerly in the collection of Silvia (née Marion) Burrell, daughter of Sir William Burrell, founder of Glasgow's Burrell Collection, Sotheby's, London, 22 May 1992, lot 226. They were catalogued as 'red walnut' but were probably mahogany. Their provenance may support a Scottish manufacture.
These parlour chairs are designed in the mid-18th century 'picturesque' fashion popularised by Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste, issued by the London Society of Upholsterers in 1760. Their serpentined frames, voluted crest-rails and truss-scrolled feet terminating in trefoils also relate to a pattern for a chair-back settee featured in the 1761 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of Lancaster (L. Boynton, (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 243).