A PAIR OF 'CHIPPENDALE' MAHOGANY STOOLS

PROBABLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

Each with rectangular padded seats upholstered in zigzag needlework, the solid mahogany seat-rails carved with gadrooning with rococo shellwork and leaves on claw-and-ball feet
17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm.) high; 24 1/4 in. (61.5 cm.) wide; 20 1/2 in. (52 cm.) deep
Provenance

The Collection of Mrs Emily Hesslein, New York; sold Sotheby's, London, 10 May 1962, lot 156.
Lot Essay

Sir Keith Showering was a dynamic businessman, whose career was founded on a 300-year-old Somerset family cider making business which he had joined in 1947 aged seventeen, and the subsequent meteoric success of Babycham, the sparkling perry drink that captured the nation. In the 1960s he was Managing Director of Harveys of Bristol and a Director of Société Civile du Vignobles de Château Latour amongst many other Directorships. By 1975 Showering, then aged 44, was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Allied Breweries (taking over Lyons in 1978 to become Allied Lyons), Europe’s biggest drinks business becoming the youngest ever Chairman and Chief Executive of a FTSE 100 Company at that time. In 1980 he was appointed High Sheriff of Somerset and in 1981 he was knighted for services to industry, additionally taking over as Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers. By the time of his death, he was on the board of a wide variety of companies, including the Midland Bank and the Bank of England.
Showering was a true renaissance polymath. His interests were manifold and included art; history; fine wines; breeding pedigree cattle; conservation; and music, being a trustee of both Glyndebourne and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From the early 1960s until his death in 1982, he was also an avid collector of fine art, silver, antique furniture and books.
In 1954 Keith married his childhood sweetheart, Marie Golden, on her 18th birthday, and they had two daughters and four sons. Lady Showering remained the matriarch figure to her large family for the next forty-one years, upholding the many values that she and Sir Keith had instilled in their family. Marie's funeral was 41 years to the day after the death of her husband on 23rd March 2023.