£8,750
Five Centuries: Furniture, Paintings & Works of Art from 1600 | 580
Auction: 20 November 2019 at 10:00 GMT
including two carvers, each with a moulded rectangular back, the back and seat covered in red floral pattern cut velvet, on faceted knopped legs and toupie feet, the armchairs with additional carving, the back legs with later buttresses fitted with ceramic castors
Provenance:
Commissioned for Horsley Towers, Surrey, by William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace, probably after 1850
The estate of the late 5th Earl of Lovelace
Note: Pugin designed a more elaborate x-frame armchair for Scarisbrick Hall in 1836, based on a design for a chair which he had illustrated in 'Gothic Furniture' of 1835, which demonstrates his archaeological approach to chair design. The armchairs in this set borrow several characteristics from that chair, most notably the elaborate scrollwork terminals on the arms and the form of the back, with its rounded and moulded rectangular form and arched top rail with carved panel. The legs are reminiscent of Pugin's chairs for the House of Commons, however the brackets for castors at the rear of the back legs look to be an eccentric Lovelace addition.
Literature:
Atterbury, Paul and Wainwright, Clive, Pugin: A Gothic Passion, London 1994, pp.131-132, illus. plates 229 and 232.
Provenance: Torridon House, Home of The Earls of Lovelace.