Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
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Lot 81W
A pair of George III mahogany side chairs Circa 1765
12 – 23 September 2025, 12:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£3,000 - £5,000
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Thomas Moore
Head of Department
A pair of George III mahogany side chairs
Circa 1765
Each with a square back and interlaced fretwork splat, above an associated needlework upholstered seat, on square section legs with canted inner angles, the front legs with interlaced blind fretwork and headed by pierced scrolled spandrels, with splayed rear legs and an H-stretcher, restorations, the rails on the underside of one chair with a 19th century printed paper label which reads: 'E. MORRIS, CABINET MANUFACTURER... WOLVERHAMPTON' 57.5cm wide x 57.5cm deep x 94.5cm high, (22 1/2in wide x 22 1/2in deep x 37in high) (2)
Each with a square back and interlaced fretwork splat, above an associated needlework upholstered seat, on square section legs with canted inner angles, the front legs with interlaced blind fretwork and headed by pierced scrolled spandrels, with splayed rear legs and an H-stretcher, restorations, the rails on the underside of one chair with a 19th century printed paper label which reads: 'E. MORRIS, CABINET MANUFACTURER... WOLVERHAMPTON' 57.5cm wide x 57.5cm deep x 94.5cm high, (22 1/2in wide x 22 1/2in deep x 37in high) (2)
Footnotes
A related armchair dated circa 1760, with an identical splat to those on the present examples - aside from the different foliate carved pagoda shaped toprail of the former compared to the plainness of the latter - is illustrated in G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture, 1500-1840, 1987, Oxford, fig. 3, p. 128. Further comparables of similar fret-design chairs, whether those that are with or without the blind fretwork on their legs, appear among a number of designs by Thomas Chippendale across his three editions of 'The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director' (1754-1762), and also in those drawings produced by the cabinet making partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew between 1760 and 1765.
The E. Morris of the printed paper label which is applied to the underside of one of the offered chairs undoubtedly refers to the cabinet maker, and doubtless also furniture restorer, Edward S. Morris. He is documented as operating in this capacity in the 1877 Furniture Gazette Directory, working from his base on Darlington Street in Wolverhampton. The current chairs were almost certainly probably repaired by Morris in the 19th century.
https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/