A VICTORIAN PARCEL-GILT MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR

A similar set of 18th Century chairs is in the collection of the Earls of Radnor at Longford Castle (see P. Macquoid, The Age of Mahogany, p. 78, fig. 72 and The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol. I, p. 265, fig. 123). While Goodison worked extensively at Longford, the Dictionary notes Giles Grendey's label 'has been found attached to other chairs in a similar style (than those from Longford Castle), and in 1739, the Longford accounts record a payment of 68 to 'Greenday chairmaker'.

Colonel Colville was an exceptional connoisseur collector of the years immediately following the First World War. His superb collection of English furniture had a particular emphasis on seat-furniture, and he was very unusual among his contemporaries for his interest in upholstery beyond needlework, including magnificent decayed survivals of the grandest late 17th century coverings. His collection was well known to Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, compilers of The Dictionary of English Furniture in the 1920s, and many illustrations of his furniture were used in those volumes. That his collection was considered from an early date to be particularly strong in examples of chairs and upholstery is shown by an article by Margaret Jourdain devoted exclusively to seat-furniture in Country Life in October 1923. Margaret Jourdain described the collection as 'a remarkable gathering of fine and individual furniture'. More recently John Cornforth described Colonel Colville as 'a connoisseur with an exceptional eye for works of art'.