A PAIR OF GEORGE II GILT-GESSO SIDE CHAIRS

This superbly carved pair of chairs is part of a set of eight commissioned by George Lee, 2nd Earl of Lichfield (1690-1743) for Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire. They were designed under the direction of his architect Henry Flitcroft (1607-1769) to harmonise with the Palladian architecture of the state apartments, whose banqueting-hall ceiling featured 'A Council of the Gods' painted by the artist/architect William Kent (1685-1748) with whom Flitcroft was associated. The stucco spandrels of this trompe l'oeil occulus were embellished with festive bacchic lions emerging from roman foliage in the 'arabesque' manner. These gilded withdrawing-room chairs, described in the 1743 inventory as 'back-stools', were originally upholstered in crimson acanthus-scrolled damask and feature bacchic-lion monopodiae emerging from the acanthus foliage of their legs. The upholstered furniture for this tapestry-hung apartment has been credited to William Bradshaw (d. 1775), cabinet-maker, upholsterer and tapissier of Greek Street, Soho, who acted as the Earl's upholsterer and in 1736 supplied related chairs for Chevening, Kent.
This present pair of chairs were retained by the family but the other six were sold from Ditchley Park by the Executors of Harold Arthur, 17th Viscount Dillon, C.H., Sotheby's London, 26 May 1933, lot 145. They were subsequently sold by Lady Anne Tree, in these Rooms, 23 May 1968, lot 114 and again, in these Rooms, 27 June 1985, lot 184.
The set of chairs was accompanied by a half settee, which was probably separated from the chairs in the 19th century but has not been found in any sale. A mid-19th century sofa incorporating George II legs likely from the original half settee from Ditchley sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2013, lot 198.