A PAIR OF BLACK AND GILT-JAPANNED STOOLS

This pair of stools is copied from the model sold as two pairs of stools by The Lord Aberconway, Christie's, London, 9 July 1998, lot 16-17 (£122,500 and £117,000 respectively). The original suite (which also included a long stool, sold in the same sale, as lot 18 (£51,000)) was almost certainly commissioned around 1700-10 by Sir Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds (d. 1712) for a bedroom appartment at Kiveton, Yorkshire. Built on a palatial scale between 1697-1705 under the guidance of the architects William Talman (d. 1719) and John Fitch (d. 1706), the rooms at Kiveton were described as being 'richly furnished with Damask & Velvet' in 1724. Two further suites of black and gilt-japanned seat-furniture also supplied to the Duke of Leeds, either for Kiveton or his Wimbledon house and subsequently recorded at Hornby Castle, are now thought to have been executed by Philip Guibert (d. 1739).
However, this form of voluted stretcher also features on seats attributed to Thomas Roberts (d. 1714) of 'The Royal Chair', Marylebone Street, who supplied 'blue and white japan' stools for Hampton Court in 1693 and related 'banquettes' for Chatsworth, Derbyshire in 1702 (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 752).