£1,250
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art | 641
Auction: Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art
the back, arms and seat rail profusely carved with various armorial bearings relating to the Gray of Dalmarnock family of Lanarkshire, within trails and fields of oak leaves and the motto 'FAST THROUGH'
Provenance: Property from Kilmany House, Fife
Note: The impressive carvings on this chair appear to be armorial bearings reflecting marital alliances or genealogical connections within the Gray family. The principal arms carved on the back panel of the chair are those of Gray of Dalmarnock quartering Hamilton of Newton with the crest of Hamilton shown above the arms and the crest of Gray below, with a circlet bearing the motto ‘Fast Through’. Either side of the back panel are found a further ten arms, together with another six arms carved on the front rail below the seat of the chair. They are identified as follows: back panel dexter from the top, Gray of Dalmarnock; Chapman; Lord Boyd; Hamilton of Newton; and Pollok; sinister from top, Dundas; Hamilton of Westburn; Lindsay, Earl of Crawford; Hamilton of Barnes; Carmichael, Earl of Hyndhope; front rail from dexter, Anderson of Dowhill; Steuart of Allantown; Crawford Viscount Garnock; Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton; Cunninghame; and Hamilton of Westburn.
From information gleaned regarding this chair it was probably commissioned by Robert Gray of Cartyne in the County of Lanarkshire (1756-1833). He was the son of John Gray of Dalmarnock and Cartyne aforesaid and his wife, Isabella Chapman. Upon the death of its last heiress in 1823, Robert became the representative of the ancient family of Hamilton of Newton. He had also married into the Hamilton family in 1799 marrying Mary Anne Hamilton of Westburn (d. 1809) through whose veins run the blood of the Dundas, Lindsay and Crawford families as well as a cousinship to the line of the Dukes of Hamilton.