A SUITE OF GEORGE III CREAM-PAINTED SEAT FURNITURE

This elegant suite of French-fashioned cabriolet chairs, with Grecian crestings, are designed in the antique fashion associated with the Paris-trained chair-maker Francois Herve (d.1796) under the direction of Henry Holland (d.1806), architect to George IV, when Prince of Wales. A closely related armchair is thought to have formed part of the furnishings of Claremont, Surrey, which was at various times the home of Princess Charlotte (d.1817), and Prince Leopold (d.1865) as well as of Queen Marie-Amelie (d.1866) and the Duchess of Albany (d.1922) (see O. Brackett and H. Clifford Smith, English Furniture Illustrated, London, 1950, p.224).