A REGENCY PARCEL-GILT AND EBONISED SIDE CHAIR

William Marsh and Thomas Tatham ran a highly successful firm of cabinet makers counting the Prince of Wales amongst its patrons and for whom they supplied significant amounts of furniture, both for Carlton House and the Pavilion at Brighton, under the direction of Henry Holland. They were known for producing furniture in the favoured spare classical fashion of the Regency to designs reflecting the drawings of antique ornament published by Tatham's brother in 1799 and would certainly have been influenced by the published designs of Thomas Hope (d. 1831). This chair can be related to a design illustrated in Thomas Hope's, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. XXVI, number 6 which is also shown in pl. V Op. cit., in situ in a room displaying Greek vases at Hope's Duchess Street 'Museum'. In the book Regency Furniture, Francis Collard illustrates (p.266) an identical chair in situ in the Back Drawing Room at 11 Montague Place, the London residence of playwright Edward Knoblock (d.1945) in a photograph of 1931. Knoblock and Professor Sir Albert Richardson shared a passion for Regency design, being amongst the first to recognise its long overlooked merits, and became early champions of the Regency revival. Collard also notes that Professor Richardson and Knoblock, along with the 7th Duke of Wellington, were 'owners of Hope pieces from The Deepdene', (Op. cit., p. 26).