Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Selected Furniture from a West Country Estate
Lot 20TP
A set of four George III 'Gothick' mahogany open armchairs After a design by Thomas Chippendale and after designs by Robert Manwaring, with restorations
5 July 2024, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £6,144 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Home and Interiors specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Thomas Moore
Head of Department
A set of four George III 'Gothick' mahogany open armchairs
After a design by Thomas Chippendale and after designs by Robert Manwaring, with restorations
Each with a square back and channelled pointed arched toprail centred by a boss, above a vertical splat comprised of four pointed cusped arches with pierced shaped trefoil-form spandrels, with curved, scrolled shaped arms and roundel headed octagonal form cappings, on square section legs with scrolled foliate ears, on splayed rear legs, upholstered with associated gros and petit-point needlework seats depicting various pastoral scenes, signs of re-railing, each approximately: 62.5cm wide x 56cm deep x 91cm high, (24 1/2in wide x 22in deep x 35 1/2in high) (4)
Each with a square back and channelled pointed arched toprail centred by a boss, above a vertical splat comprised of four pointed cusped arches with pierced shaped trefoil-form spandrels, with curved, scrolled shaped arms and roundel headed octagonal form cappings, on square section legs with scrolled foliate ears, on splayed rear legs, upholstered with associated gros and petit-point needlework seats depicting various pastoral scenes, signs of re-railing, each approximately: 62.5cm wide x 56cm deep x 91cm high, (24 1/2in wide x 22in deep x 35 1/2in high) (4)
Footnotes
As with the previous lot, the precursor for this type of 'Gothick' chair is one that was supplied in 1754 to Horace Walpole and installed at his castellated extravaganza, Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham.
A design for an armchair with a closely comparable multiple interlaced cusped arched and trefoil pierced splat to those on the chairs comprising the present lot appears in the third edition of Thomas Chippendale's renowned The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, pl. XVII, 1762. This seminal work was reproduced by Dover Publications, Inc., 1966, New York. Chippendale notes therein that such a 'Gothick Back' chair would be suitable for "Halls, Passages or Summerhouses". Whilst this same drawing is replicated in C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, Vol. I, 1978, London, fig. 138, p. 85.
Three similar designs were also originally illustrated in the second edition of Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste, published circa 1765 upon behalf of 'A Society of Upholsterers', pl.'s 2, 14 and 15. These engravings were executed by Robert Manwaring and then subsequently formed part of a 1766 publication by Sayer called The Chair-Maker's Guide. All three are also reproduced in Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, compiled by E. White, 2000, Woodbridge, pp.'s 69 and 72.
The general outline or overall form of the back on each of the offered chairs seems closest to the Manwaring design for what he referred to as a "Parlour chair", featuring in Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste, pl. 2. However, in terms of the cusped pointed arched or arcaded splat, the inspiration and influence for this was possibly more likely taken from the two other Manwaring designs, Ibid, pl.'s 14 and 15, both of which are much more akin to the above examples than the former.