A PAIR OF GEORGE III EBONISED AND PARCEL-GILT MAHOGANY SERPENTINE WINDOW SEATS

Such seats, armed in Roman 'triclinium' couch fashion, would have furnished drawing-room window-bays, and would have been upholstered to match festooned curtains, as appear in a 1770s architectural drawing by James Wyatt (d.1813) (J. Fowler and J. Cornforth, English Decoration in the 18th Century, London, 1986, fig. 13). Elegantly serpentined in the French manner, they relate to an engraved 'cabriolet' chair pattern of 1775 (T. Malton's, Complete Treatise on Perspective, pl. 33, fig. 131). Their design corresponds to that of blue damask-covered 'Window Stools' commissioned for Holme Hall, Yorkshire and invoiced in 1775 by the Cavendish Square 'upholder' Thomas Ward (d.1780), sold Sotheby's, London, 30 October 1969, lot 178.
The present window seats are similar to an example attributed to Thomas Chippendale, sold by the Earl of Harewood, Christie's London, 1 April 1976, lot 40. Thomas Chippendale is also recorded as supplying seat furniture comprising twelve armchairs and six window seats to Sir Robert Burdett, Bt., for Foremark Hall, Derbyshire, see Chippendale Loan Exhibition, Christie's London, 10, 13-16 November 1978, item 4, and 'Thomas Chippendale and Foremark Hall', Anthony Coleridge, Furnitue History, 1997, Vol.XXXIII., pp. 136-141.