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Lot 298
A GEORGE II WALNUT CORNER ARMCHAIR
IN THE MANNER OF GILES GRENDEY, CIRCA 1730
Closed9 May 2018
Price Realised
USD 32,500
More Information
Specialist note
Peggy gave me this armchair in 1956 as a Christmas present. She seems to have a flair for picking unusual pieces of furniture, which I have enjoyed. This chair has been at my desk in the library at 146 East 65th Street ever since its purchase.
D. R.
The present chair is related to a set of six in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the celebrated Clerkenwell cabinet-maker and upholsterer Giles Grendey (d. 1780), two of which carry labels 'GILES GRENDEY, In St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell, LONDON, Makes and Sells all Sorts of Cabinet- Goods, Chairs and Glasses' (illustrated C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 242, fig. 434).
The characteristic hipped front legs with dimpled shell and pendant husk and pearls, as well as the elaborate scallop splat, are features that appear on the labeled set. In 1931, the historian/advisor R.W. Symonds wrote that although the cabinet-maker did not label all of his work, it is in the case of these distinctly carved legs that 'one might infer that all chairs and stools with this leg came from Grendey's workshop' (see R.W. Symonds, 'More about Labelled Furniture', The Connoisseur, December 1931, p.407, fig.VIII).
D. R.
The present chair is related to a set of six in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the celebrated Clerkenwell cabinet-maker and upholsterer Giles Grendey (d. 1780), two of which carry labels 'GILES GRENDEY, In St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell, LONDON, Makes and Sells all Sorts of Cabinet- Goods, Chairs and Glasses' (illustrated C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 242, fig. 434).
The characteristic hipped front legs with dimpled shell and pendant husk and pearls, as well as the elaborate scallop splat, are features that appear on the labeled set. In 1931, the historian/advisor R.W. Symonds wrote that although the cabinet-maker did not label all of his work, it is in the case of these distinctly carved legs that 'one might infer that all chairs and stools with this leg came from Grendey's workshop' (see R.W. Symonds, 'More about Labelled Furniture', The Connoisseur, December 1931, p.407, fig.VIII).