A GEORGE II WALNUT AND PARCEL-GILT ARMCHAIR

The chair shows similarities in the idiosyncratic form of the splat with the set commissioned between 1725 - 36 by Nicholas, 4th Earl of Scarsdale for Sutton Scarsdale, and tentatively attributed to Thomas How, upholsterer of Westminster (Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 40, Woodbridge, 2009, p. 177, pl. 4.66). Related chairs bear the trade label of Giles Grendey, of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, including a pair sold Sotheby's, New York, 20/2 November 1981, lot 233, and the attribution to Grendey is strengthened by the presence on the seat rail of the journeyman's stamped initials, a common practice in Grendey's workshop.