A SET OF SIX REGENCY MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS

The stamp 'HH' has been found on numerous Gillows chairs and is discussed in S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, vol. II, p.244. Stuart also records (p.291) the upholsterer William Turner (1797-1837) in partnership in Lancaster with John Hodgson from c.1820. It is possible that Turner was sub-contracted by Gillows as upholsterer, but equally likely that freelance chairmaker-journeymen such as 'HH' produced Gillows-type chairs for independent local upholsterers like Turner. Whatever the case, the legs, the cushion-moulded seat rails, the superb mahogany and construction of the present chairs are classic Gillows characteristics of the 1820s, while the hollow-cornered double-panelling of the top rail derives from an 1810 design shown by Stuart, vol. I, p.136, fig. 4.