About This Object
A fine pair of mahogany hall chairs of the Chippendale period,
England, circa 1770.
Why we like them
Their aesthetic simplicity and austere, geometric design embodies the elegant mid-Georgian minimalism that influenced English domestic furniture during the third quarter of the 18th century, the early decades of King George III's reign.
The Design
The design for these hall chairs was possibly inspired by eight carved and painted hall chairs, almost certainly supplied by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) to the Lascelles family for Harewood House in circa 1770, and to a further set of eight virtually identical chairs circa 1775 to the Harewood set in the collection of Sir Rowland Winn at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (illustrated C. Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale, vol. II, London, 1978, p. 97, figs. 157-159). Conforming to the 'mature Neo-Classical idiom', the Chippendale chairs have circular 'paterae' backs supported on 'altar' plinths.
A Gillow's sketch for a related hall chair is illustrated Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, edited by Lindsay Boynton, Bllomfield, 1995, pl. 286.
An identical pair was sold Christie's, London, 16 September 2004, lot 211.
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