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A PAIR OF GEORGE III WHITE AND BLUE-PAINTED ARMCHAIRS BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1775 Each with anthemion-centred lappet-carved almost round-shaped back above a generous bowfront buttoned seat flanked by padded open arms, covered in blue and cream silk, the acanthus terminals with beaded roundels, the seat-rails with conforming lappet carving on turned and fluted tapering front legs, the rear cabriole legs terminating in scroll feet, back strut, cramp-cuts, four screw holes for tourniquet bracing, batten-carrying holes, both chairs with apparently contemporary ink numbering 'N3' and 'N...', the chair marked 'N' with indistinct pencil inscription 'J. Wick[?]', a later gilded scheme removed and the original scheme refreshed by Carvers and Gilders in 2005, the outside of the rear seatrail of the chair marked 'N' with unrestored panel of the original decoration exposed 33 ? in. (85 cm.) high; 24 in. (61 cm.) wide; 25 ? in. (65 cm.) deep
This pair of blue and white-painted ‘French’ armchairs with backs ‘à medaillon’ is a fine example of Chippendale’s neo-classical painted furniture, fashionable in the 1770s, and considered particularly appropriate for a drawing room, bedchamber or dressing room.
THE CHAIR PATTERN
The design is a popular model by Chippendale of this period, whereby the carving and/or shape of the supports could be altered to suit a patron’s taste. A drawing for an oval-back armchair showing some of these different treatments is in the collection at Burton Constable, Yorkshire, and inscribed ‘Chipindale’ by Chippendale’s client, William Constable (1721-91) (1). The design demonstrates some of the options available to the firm’s patrons (2). Christopher Gilbert notes, ‘This chair pattern is so characteristic of the firm’s standard 1770s drawing room model that views of the side profile and seat rails, revealing the distinctive V-shaped cuts to take glue cramps and holes where the frames were screwed to cross battens in packing crates, and also the visible back splat are reproduced’ (3).
Such chairs were usually part of a larger suite of seat-furniture that might comprise a pair of sofas, a large number of armchairs, bergères and window seats. For Edwin Lacelles, 1st Baron Harewood (1712-95), at Harewood House, Yorkshire, Chippendale’s most important and valuable commission, the cabinet-maker supplied ’12 rich Carved Cabriole Armd Chairs gilt in burnished Gold, Covered and finished as the others’ and ‘2 Sofas richly Carved to match the Chairs’ for the State Dressing Room, for which he charged £120 for the chairs, and £64 for the sofas. The reference in the accounts ‘to match the others’ suggesting there were yet more chairs of this design already at Harewood (4).
Large suites of painted or ‘japanned’ seat-furniture were manifestly ‘à la mode’. A set of armchairs, previously painted blue with parcel-gilt, with cartouche rather than round backs, intended for one of the family rooms at Harewood, were sold Thomas Chippendale 300 Years; Property of a lady of title; Christie's, London, 5 July 2018, lot 18. These were probably acquired by Lord Harewood from Chippendale between 1770-72, and may have been listed in the missing Chippendale Harewood account, which was for the period ending December 1772 and amounted to £3024 19s 3d. Another set of fifteen chairs, initially numbering eighteen, of a similar model to the above but painted green and gold were made for the Music Room in circa 1770 and are still at Harewood (5). A further two sets of blue and gold chairs were recorded in the 1795 Harewood inventory in Lord Harewood’s bedchamber and adjoining blue dressing room; one of these sets is probably the oval back blue and gold chairs that have remained at Harewood.
RELATED CHAIRS BY CHIPPENDALE
Chairs by Chippendale most closely related to the present examples, with almost round rather than oval chair backs (the fo