A GEORGE II WALNUT SIDE CHAIR

The present chair is related to a set of six in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the celebrated Clerkenwell cabinet-maker and upholsterer Giles Grendey (d. 1780), two of which carry labels 'GILES GRENDEY, In St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell, LONDON, Makes and Sells all Sorts of Cabinet- Goods, Chairs and Glasses' (illustrated C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 242, fig. 434).
The stamp WH is probably for William House, employed by Grendey from April 14, 1747 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp. 371-372). A number of chairs from Grendey's workshop bear the stamp of his journeymen - and indeed the WH stamp appears on numerous chairs of known Grendey models.