Footnotes

• Provenance:
  Walter Waddingham, Harrogate, circa 1960
  
  This mahogany chair, with its rich floral tapestry cover and boldly carved arms and legs is an attractive example of this very popular model, much favoured by collectors over the last hundred years.
  
  The carved lion's head terminals to the arms are a common feature on the furniture belonging to the early 20th century connoisseur Percival Griffiths (d.1938), whose house at Sandridgebury, Kent was filled with furniture of this style and period. Following his death, and the sale of his collection
  in 1939, much of the furniture was acquired by other collectors such as Frederick Poke and, more recently, Theodore and Ruth Baum (sold Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2004). A similar armchair, but with a curved top seat rail is illustrated in Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth
  Century, 1911, vol II, p.85, fig.81.
  
  The fish scale ornament to the arm supports is rarely seen on mahogany furniture, and is more commonly used on carved giltwood furniture associated with makers such as William Kent and John Gordon. A pair of carved walnut chairs attributed to William Hallett, also with scale pattern on the arms, sold Sotheby's London, 3 July 2003 lot 101.
  
  The tapestry seat cover on the offered lot has a balanced floral design suggesting that it was woven especially as a chair seat, rather than having been cut down from a larger piece. An almost identical cover appears on a chair in the dining room at Ascott, Buckinghamshire, the home of Mr and Mrs Anthony de Rothschild and now the property of the National Trust (see, The Antique Collector, October 1960, p.169, fig.2).
  
  Walter Waddingham was a prominent Yorkshire antique dealer with a large showroom at 10 Royal Parade in Harrogate. During the late 1950's and early 1960's he advertised heavily in art and antiques magazines and he also exhibited at trade fairs such as the BADA 'Art Treasures Exhibition' held
  in Bath in 1958. When his business expanded in 1959 he made an announcement to the effect in the February edition of the The Antique Collector: 'Mr Waddingham of Harrogate has opened further premises at 99 Mount Street, London, W1 where he is showing antique furniture and works of art of the high standard associated with his firm.'