A SET OF EIGHT ENGLISH MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS

There was a very large set of these chairs at Wentworth Woodhouse which are visible in an early Country Life photograph of the State Dining Room in 1906, and it seems certain that the set of 1775-80 was extended as more were required. The firm of Miles and Edwards, one of the leading cabinet-making firms in London in the 1820s and 1830s, would have been a very suitable choice for Lord Fitzwilliam when he wanted to extend a set of chairs from the previous generation that was not numerous enough for the entertaining being undertaken by the 1820s (C. Gilbert and G. Beard, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986,p. 606).