18th century mahogany Cockpen armchair

Description

A late 18th century mahogany armchair of ‘Cockpen’ design.
George III period, circa 1770.

Note the unusual treatment of the carved and moulded arm supports and pierced centre H-stretcher.

Sturdy in all its joints. A sophisticated antique (Georgian) desk chair or occasional armchair. Some historic restorations entirely commensurate with its age. Ready-to-use.

Refs:

Christopher Gilbert ‘The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale’ p. 101, fig 167.
Ralph Edwards CBE FSA ‘A Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’, Hamlyn, London, Fourth Impression 1972, p. 150, ill. 132, documents a similar armchair dated circa 1765.
‘English furniture’ by Thomas Arthur Strange, pp. 133, 156 & 157.
Thomas Chippendale ‘Director’, ill. XXVI.
Percy Macquoid, ‘A History of English Furniture, The Age of Mahogany’, London, 1908, ill. 682.
Ralph Edwards CBE FSA ‘Georgian Cabinet-Makers’, London, 1955, p. 136, fig. 88.

Sebastian Pryke ‘The 18th Century Furniture Trade in Edinburgh’.
Sebastian Pryke ‘Cockpen Quest’ Country Life, 29th April, 1993.

Named for pew chairs with a Chinese lattice design in the Cockpen Church, Cockpen, Midlothian, Scotland, Cockpen chairs were originally made for the aristocratic Dalhousie family, circa 1775. The master cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale provided chairs of this form for Normanton Park, Rutland, and also Harewood House, West Yorkshire.

Interestingly Percy Macquoid RI in his ‘A History of English Furniture – The Age of Mahogany’ illustrates an almost identical mahogany armchair, Bracken, London, originally publ. 1904-1908, p. 298, fig. 682. Property of the Duke of Beaufort. ”One of a set and particularly pleasing in shape; it corresponds in design to the table fig. 676.”

If anyone knows of the whereabouts of the rest of this set, we would be very interested to hear from you.