Live Auction 7439Important English Furniture
A SET OF SIX LATE VICTORIAN MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS
Lot 657 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

A SET OF SIX LATE VICTORIAN MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS

OF GEORGE II STYLE, 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY IRISH

Closed22 November 2007

Price Realised

GBP 29,300

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A SET OF SIX LATE VICTORIAN MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS
OF GEORGE II STYLE, 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY IRISH
Each with dished toprail centred by a lion mask above a pierced splat centred by a stylised shell and flanked by imbricated stiles, above a padded seat covered in floral petit point needlework, above a foliate-carved apron, on cabriole legs and scroll feet, minor variations in carving
36¼ in. (92 cm.) high (6)

Dr. John Matthews, 20 Wimpole Street, London, W.1.; Knight, Frank & Rutley, 13-14 July 1948, lot 218.

Specialist note

This set of six chairs relates to (and may be part of the same set) as a pair in the Irwin Untermyer Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, London, 1958, p. 23, figs. 97-99 and plates 74-75). The latter pair was sold by Robert J. Dunham, Parke-Bernet, New York, 10 May 1947, lot 361. The chair pattern, and in particular the seat-rail form is related to a chair from the collection of Percival Griffiths and illustrated in English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 179, fig. 134. Another is illustrated in The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. I, p. 277, fig. 158. The leg pattern is derived from chairs supplied by Giles Grendey to Gunton Park, Norfolk and illustrated in C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, London, 1996, p. 243, fig. 437.
In the late 19th century, cabinet-making firms such as M. Butler of Dublin specialised in the recreation of 18th century models. Occasionally, the finished product was a creative embellishment of the pattern on which the piece was based. Interestingly, the furniture sold by Dr John Matthews, in July 1948 comprised several pieces of Irish furniture.