This chair, follows the 'French' form as interpreted by Thomas Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1754, plate XIX. The profile, with its gently waved crest and delicately curved arms, relates directly to a suite of five library armchairs from Swinton in Yorkshire and now attributed to the Yorkshire cabinet-makers, Wright and Elwick, who were known to have worked for William Danby at Swinton in around 1775. The suite was sold by the Earl of Swinton and the Hon. Nicholas Cunliffe-Lister, Swinton House, Masham, Yorkshire, Christie's house sale, 20-21 October 1975, lot 17.
Established in 1747 by Richard Wright and Edward Elwick, this prolific partnership '[had] the honour to serve most of the Nobility & Gentry in the West and North Rideing' (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture-Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp.1006-1008). Their list of patrons was indeed lengthy and distinguised and included the likes of Sir Rowland Winn at Nostell Priory, the Duke of Norfolk at Worksop Manor, Viscount Irwin at Temple Newsam House, John Spencer at Cannon Hall and most notably, the Marquis of Rockingham at Wentworth Woodhouse.
The chair design also corresponds to a hollow-seated chair in the collection at Southill, Bedfordshire (illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. edn., 1954, vol.I, p. 277, fig.160). A related pair of chairs, with carved serpentine apron and stretchers sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 100.