A GEORGE II MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR
Lot 186 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION (LOTS 186 - 194)

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR

AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1755

Closed23 May 2013

Price Realised

GBP 30,000

More Information

How to sell

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY ARMCHAIR
AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1755
The cartouche-shaped padded back and seat upholstered in polychrome blue floral silk, the pierced back carved overall with rocaille foliate scrolls and centred by an acanthus clasp, above wavy leaf-carved arms with acanthus-wrapped knuckles, the front rail boldly carved with acanthus and C-scrolls, on cabriole legs with ball and claw feet
41¾ in. (106 cm.) high; 28½ in. (72.5 cm.) wide; 28 in. (71 cm.) deep

'The Leidesdorf Collection', Sotheby's New York, 29 June 1974, lot 29.
Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 9 April 1987, lot 32.

Specialist note

The design for this armchair is based on a drawing for a 'French Chair' first published by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779), in his Director of 1754. The design's popularity endured and it remained in the third edition of 1762, pl.XXI, where Chippendale describes how this chair type is intended 'to be open below at the Back: which makes them very light, without having a bad Effect' (op.cit, p.4).

An armchair with a similar cartouche-shaped back is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, illustrated in The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture (R. Edwards, 1964, p.151, fig.136), and Chippendale Furniture (A. Coleridge, 1968, fig.179). A pair of armchairs of this pattern was exhibited by Hyde Park Antiques at the Antique Dealers' Fair, Grosvenor House, London, 1990.