About This Object
A very fine set of seven George III Chippendale period carved mahogany dining chairs of superb quality and generous proportions, to comprise six single and one armchair.
English, c. 1765
Each having a molded serpentine crestrail, carved with foliate scrolls to each eared corner and an acanthus clasp to the center, over a pierced vasiform splat of a particularly pleasing broad proportions, carved with acanthus sprays and scrolls and flanked by shaped and molded uprights, above the drop-in seat covered in Chartreuse damask, within the channeled seat rails, raised on square chamfered and channeled legs united by an H-stretcher.
Made of solid and dense well-figured Honduras mahogany, beautifully patinated to a warm golden colour, crisply carved with foliate motifs. Back seat rails stamped IG, which is most likely, the chairmaker’s initials; incised variously with Roman numerals I to VI, with original drop-in seats correspondingly numbered.
Similar stamps of the journeymen’s initials are often found on chairs from the workshop of Giles Grendey (1693-1780) of Clerkenwell, London. Fine choice of timber, superb carving and sophisticated design of the present chairs suggest their London origin, a highly skilled craftsman, and a wealthy patron.
Fine original untouched condition, warm golden colour and superb patina.
Illustrated: The Connoisseur, December 1930, page LXXV - with W.F. Greenwood and Sons, Ltd. of Harrogate, Yorkshire.
For a closely related design please see H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the 18th Century, fig. 286, p. 257.
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