A REGENCY MAHOGANY HALL BENCH

The imperial 'antique' design and ornament of this hall bench, evoking lyric poetry, derives from the fashion popularised by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's, Receuil de decorations Interieuses, 1801 and promoted by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d.1842), author of a guide-book to his London mansion/museum entitled Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807. The rectangular frame has architectural 'eared' ends that are supported on taper-hermed legs. These same elements feature in a stately throne pattern published in January 1807 and included in a Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808, (pl. 58) issued by George Smith (d.1826), 'Upholder Extraordinary to His Royal Excellency the Prince of Wales'. Smith, who began his pattern-book in 1804, wrote of 'the great taste and elegance' of this design while also noting that 'French invention' lay behind his accompanying 'Library Fauteuil' pattern (ibid., pl. 47).