A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONISED SOFA

The Grecian sofa, japanned bronze-black, was designed in the early l9th Century French/antique fashion for the Library; and has golden flowered bas-reliefs embellishing the wave-scrolled volutes on its arms, which are hollowed for a French squab and pillow-cushions. With its reeded ornament, flowered tablets, and scrolled feet, it relates to an 1805 'parlour chair' pattern in Thomas Sheraton's, Cabinet Encyclopaedia, 1808 (pl. 10).