Lot 273
ATTRIBUTED TO A. W. N. PUGIN (1812-1852)
GOTHIC REVIVAL CHAIR 'SPEAKER'S CHAIR', MID-19TH CENTURY
Auction: Day One inc Contents from a London Apartment | Lots 197 to 333 | Wednesday 15th October
Description
oak, with later leather upholstery and original brass nails
Dimensions
44.5cm wide, 101cm high, 46cm deep
Footnote
Literature: Atterbury P and Wainwright C. A.W.N. Pugin, Master of Gothic Revival, London, 1995, p. 132, no. 231
Ross I. (ed.), The Houses of Parliament, History, Art, Architecture, London, 2000, pp. 188, 206 (illus.)
The current lot is a variant of a group of oak side chairs, or "back stools," which were originally designed by Pugin in 1846 in the ‘National’ style for the New Palace of Westminster. Their carved frames, decorated with oak leaves and English roses, reflect Pugin’s adaptation of fifteenth-century Gothic motifs. The design was conceived as a group of sixteen chairs to accompany octagonal dining tables in the Queen Victoria Lobby (now the Prince’s Chamber), while a pair of gilded mahogany chairs of the same pattern served as thrones for the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert in 1849. This ‘New Palace’ pattern was revived in 1859 by Holland & Sons for the Speaker’s Residence, with more elaborately carved stretchers. Three related chairs bearing laurel-wreathed Gothic-lettered “H” cyphers, likely from the collection of John Harris, appeared at Sotheby’s London, Out of the Ordinary: The Discerning and Individual Taste of Christopher Gibbs and Harris Lindsay, 10 May 2006, Lots 207 and 208. Other examples from this set are kept at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
