A PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY ARMCHAIRS

ATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, CIRCA 1780

Details

Each oval padded back, arms and seat covered in close-nailed blue sprigged-silk, the cresting centred by a spray of wheat-ears with trailing husks, with beaded frames, on square tapering legs and spade feet
38 1/2 in. (97.5 cm.) high; 23 1/2 in. (60 cm.) wide; 20 in. (50 cm.) deep
Provenance

The Collection of Lord & Lady Weinstock; Christie's, London, 22 November 2022, lot 233.
Lot Essay

These elegant chairs, with their channelled and beaded frames, the cresting rails centred by carved wheat ears, and the sinuous curve of their armrests and supports, can be related to the production of the London and Lancaster firm of Gillows and the influence of the designs of James Wyatt. A set of eight George III mahogany dining-chairs formerly in the Moller Collection are very closely related in terms of both their outline and decoration, with beaded and channelled frames and tapering square legs terminating in block feet, although their oval backs are filled with three vertical splats centred by oval paterae (sold by Michael Hughes and Peter Lipitch Ltd., Christie’s, London, 15 November 2017, lot 43). The design of the Moller dining-chairs is taken directly from a 1778 design by James Wyatt with annotations by the Marquis de Marigny (d. 1781), the brother of Madame de Pompadour, who upon his retirement from Louis XV’s service furnished his Parisian hôtel particulier in the English manner. Wyatt had a close working relationship with Gillows, who were reproducing and reinterpreting his designs alongside those of Hepplewhite. A caned chair of the same form as the Weinstock chairs, with channelled beaded frame and including the wheat ears to the crestrail, though with caned back and seat and with solid arm supports, was formerly in the collection of Colonel H.H. Aykroyd, Whixley Hall, Yorkshire, circa 1950 (until before 1974, when his widow left Whixley following his death). Interestingly the Aykroyd chairs display the same outscrolled arms terminating in roundels as the Moller suite, forming a conclusive link between the latter and the present chairs.