An important pair of mahogany library armchairs in the George II manner
£27,000
Auction: 30 June 2001 at 12:00 BST
Description
each with shaped upholstered rectangular back and serpentine open arms with rocaille carved curved supports terminating in animal heads, the stuffover rectangular seat with scrolling acanthus carved aprons to front and sides centred by cartouches, cabriole legs with hairy paw feet and lion masks to the front, acanthus leaves to the rear, sunken castors (2)
Footnote
Provenance: Acquired by the vendor's uncle, probably from a house sale in Scotland in the 1940s or 50s.
These chairs are of identical design to the celebrated suite now divided amongst some of the world's finest public and private collections. The suite's provenance prior to the 20th century has yet to be established but Symonds states that Moss Harris acquired a set of twelve of these chairs soon after the First World War which he proceeded to sell singly and in pairs. Harris certainly illustrates one in his book The English Chair. However in 1906 Macquoid illustrated a single chair as the property of Messrs Isaacs, who later became Moss Harris, so the firm obviously had an interest earlier than this. He also illustrates a sofa (colour Pl. XXXIV) from the same suite as the property of Frank Partridge; this is the only recorded appearance of the sofa.
A pair of armchairs were sold at Sotheby's in 1962 (March 30, lot 159) which included one from the collection of HH Mulliner (sold Christie's July 10, 1934 lot 92, also illustrated in Brackett p.229.); and two further pairs from the collection of HJ Joel were sold at the Childwick Bury house sale in 1978 (Christie's May 1, lots 76 and 77). In terms of published examples whose whereabouts are known, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has a single chair (Acc. No. 47-20-3) which was acquired from the collection of Francis P Garvan in 1929, and there is a pair in the Jon Gerstenfeld Collection which were acquired through Hotspur Ltd and may be one of the above mentioned pairs.
There is also a pair of chairs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of identical pattern but slightly different proportions which were acquired in 1964 from Irwin Untermeyer (Acc. Nos. 64.101.978 & 979). Untermeyer had bought them separately, one having belonged to Colonel Lindley Marcroft Scott (sold Sotheby's April 21, 1950 lot 64) and the other to Percival Griffiths at Sandridgebury (sold Christie's May 10,1939 lot 191); it is of note that Sandridgebury is very near Childwick Bury (see above). One of the examples in Brackett (p.214), and that in Edwards, is attributed to the collection of J Thursby Pelham, and is one of this type (this example has in the past been confused with the chair in the Philadelphia Museum of Art); it is possible that this chair was acquired by Col. Scott and subsequently entered Untermeyer's collection.
Macquoid suggested the hand of Giles Grendey, presumably by comparison with the linen press in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see Coleridge pl. 373) which has panelled doors in Grendey's characteristic style and legs and aprons very similar to these chairs. This attribution is widely discounted now although the correlation between the press and the chairs is interesting.
Bibliography
William Rieder Highlights of the Untermeyer Collection of English and Continental Decorative Arts 1977 No. 136.
Herbert Cescinsky English Furniture of the 18th Century London 1910 vol II pp.65-67 fig.62
Mulliner 1924 fig.12
RW Symonds Connoisseur LXXIX 1927 p.231 no.XIV
RW Symonds Apollo June 1930 p.366 fig.IX
RW Symonds English Furniture from Charles II to George II London 1929 pp.41,191,209 figs.20,148,168
RW Symonds Antique Collector XXIX 1958 pp.97,99 fig.1
Y Hackenbroch English Furniture in the Untermeyer Collection 1958 pp.28-29, pls.100-103, figs.127-130
ET Joy The Country Life Book of Chairs London 1967 p.39 fig.29
Oliver Brackett English Furniture Illustrated 2nd edition p.214 pl. CXLVIII, p.229 pl.CLXIIIa
Percy Macquoid The Age of Mahogany 1906 p.120 pl.IV
The English Chair Moss Harris and Sons, London 1937 p.107 pl.XXXVII
Apollo XXIX 1939 p.319
G Beard and J Goodison English Furniture 1500-1850 Oxford 1987 p.96 pl.3
Connoisseur Year Book 1951 p.89
Ralph Edwards Dictionary of English Furniture 1954 vol I p.265 fig.124
Edward Lennox-Boyd ed. Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection Christie's 1998 cat. 47 pl. 40
Anthony Coleridge Chippendale Furniture London 1968 pl. 373
Chairs from the suite have been exhibited at:
Lansdowne House, London 1929
Frank Partridge, New York 1929 (presumably the same one)
Parke-Bernet, New York 1942