Description
An impressive and rare set of twenty (18 + 2) George III period mahogany dining chairs, including a pair of open armchairs.
Early 19th century, ca 1810.
Of excellent quality, colour and condition.
The carved and moulded frames raised on sabre legs. The backs with X-splats centred by a small carved roundel. The top rails channeled, carved and with a scrolled top rail. Overstuffed saddle seats with applied reeded borders to the seat rails. Two side chairs of a later date, but identical.
Nb. It is very rare for twenty Georgian dining chairs to survive as a complete set.
More often than not these long antique sets were broken up over the years to be distributed amongst family or household staff members.
There is a comparable set of twenty-four mahogany sabre leg Georgian dining chairs in the Banqueting Room at The Royal Pavilion, Brighton (illustrated on p. 284 in Nigel Nicholson’s ‘The National Trust Book of Great Houses of Britain’, published by Book Club Associations, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1978).
Another set of sixteen dining chairs, ca. 1820, with scrolled tablet top rails were sold by the late Colonel Norman Colville MC, Christies, lot 690, 22nd November 2007 est. £30,000-£50,000. These relate to dining chairs supplied by George Oakley in 1810 to Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire. This set was composed of several similar but ”matched” additional chairs.
Lit:
A.E. Riviers-Hopkins, ‘Sheraton Period Furniture for the Small Collector’, Old Furniture Magazine, vol. 3, 1928, pp. 220-228, figs. 7-9.
