A SET OF GEORGE III OAK METAMORPHIC LIBRARY STEPS

The eighteenth-century enthusiasm for ingeniously constructed metamorphic furniture, is well represented by this castor-fitted window-seat, with hinged steps concealed beneath a leather-upholstered squab seat. One such Library Stool was commissioned 1767 for the Library designed by the architect Robert Adam (d.1792) at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire for Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Bt. (d.1785). It was described by the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) 'as having a seat to rise as a step ladder stuff'd and Cover'd with black leather' (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, p. 145, fig. 262).