A PAIR OF EARLY GEORGE III MAHOGANY AND NEEDLEWORK SIDE CHAIRS

Originally part of a large suite of seat furniture, these chairs were probably supplied to Sir Monoux Cope (1696-1763), 7th Baronet, for the Chapel Room at Bramshill Park, Hampshire, where they were photographed circa 1927. Bramshill was built in 1612, and acquired by Sir John Cope in 1699. It remained in the Cope family until it was sold to Lord Brocket in 1937. For a further pair of chairs from Bramshill Park which were also in the Getty Collection at Wheatland, please see lot 59.

The front legs of these side chairs, with paired columnar supports conjoined by rustic blocks, and with the imbricated ‘dolphin-scale’ attributes, relate to designs for garden seat furniture with drip-work blocks by Daniel Marot. The bamboo-like legs and lower seat-rail linked by arched brackets and the raking columnar back legs relate to Sir William Chambers’ Chinese furniture, illustrated in his 1757 publication, Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, etc. Furthermore, the gothic blind-fret reserve panels in the seat-rails relate to Chinese table patterns such as those by Messrs. Edwards and Darly, illustrated in their New Book of Chinese Designs from 1754. A suite of furniture with related ‘Chinese’ frames was supplied to the 2nd Earl of Bessborough (d. 1793) for Ingress Abbey, Kent, which had been improved under Sir William Chambers’ (d. 1796) supervision. The settee from the Ingress Abbey suite is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no. W.7:1-1946), and notably, its design also relates to a pair of George III black and gilt-japanned armchairs from the Getty Collection at Wheatland, lot 58 in this sale.