A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY HALL CHAIRS

These chairs, with Grecian pelta-shield backs, derive from a pattern with eagle's-heads published in Thomas Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, pl.31. This design may well have been inspired by the hall benches with the Belmore crest that were supplied in the late 1790s for Castle Coole, Ireland, under the direction of the architect James Wyatt (d.1813). An identical set of four hall chairs - with Ducal armorials - was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 4 November 2005, lot 152.