A PAIR OF WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIRS

The rose-capped and medallioned-back chairs, with their fluted and laurel-enriched frames, correspond to a suite of furniture that is likely to have been commissioned in the 1770s by Hugh Smythson, 1st Duke of Northumberland (d.1786). One of the side chairs and a sofa at Syon House were photographed in the late 1920s for a pictorial inventory assembled by the Duchess of Northumberland (copy in the Victoria and Albert Museum - no. 50.G.6. photos. 141 and 139). One chair is illustrated in P. Macquoid, and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954. no 1, vol.I, p. 290, fig. 203. The chair frames also relate to those of a suite of seat furniture, with feather-plumed splats, supplied for Woodhall Park, Hertfordshire (see P. Macquoid, op. cit. p. 300, fig. 240).