A SET OF THIRTEEN EBONISED AND POLYCHROME DECORATED CHAIRS

These chairs were possibly made by Gillows for an important Scottish family. Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, spent over £4500 with Gillows between 1799-1802 furnishing Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire. His son Lord Archibald Montgomerie spent £1145 with Gillows furnishing Coilsfield House between 1801-1802. If these are Gillows chairs they must have been a commission from Gillows' London branch whose sketched designs have not survived. See S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, vol. 1, pp.206-9 for an account of the Montgomerie patronage of the firm.