Thomas Moore
Head of Department
Lot 181TP
A 19th century carved walnut double chairback settee in the George II style
23 – 24 February 2021, 10:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £9,562.50 inc. premium
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A 19th century carved walnut double chairback settee
in the George II style
With a scrolled and shaped toprail and conforming stiles, the twin vase shaped splat above a shaped shoe, with feathered eagle bust carved arms and scroll-edged terminals, the associated drop-in seat upholstered with an 18th century gros and petit-point needlework depicting three figures and various animals within an exotic landscape garden, on three opposing scroll-headed, shell and bellflower pendant clasped cabriole front legs terminating in claw and ball feet, with two splayed rear legs, 154cm wide x 61cm deep x 102cm high, (60 1/2in wide x 24in deep x 40in high)
With a scrolled and shaped toprail and conforming stiles, the twin vase shaped splat above a shaped shoe, with feathered eagle bust carved arms and scroll-edged terminals, the associated drop-in seat upholstered with an 18th century gros and petit-point needlework depicting three figures and various animals within an exotic landscape garden, on three opposing scroll-headed, shell and bellflower pendant clasped cabriole front legs terminating in claw and ball feet, with two splayed rear legs, 154cm wide x 61cm deep x 102cm high, (60 1/2in wide x 24in deep x 40in high)
Footnotes
Among several comparable original models to the offered lot, perhaps the most significant one at auction is the James Orrock/Viscount Leverhulme double chairback settee which was originally with Christie's, London, 7th June 2007, Important English Furniture, lot 75 and then subsequently sold Christie's, New York, 30th November 2012, 500 Years Decorative Arts, lot 18. Other notable examples include two which sold Christie's, New York, 27th October 2006, Important English Furniture, lot 103 and Christie's, New York, 7th June 2013, The Connoisseur's Eye, lot 345.
A further related early Georgian walnut settee forerunner is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, 1937, Garden City Publishing Company, pp.'s 166 & 171. The former has similar feathered eagle bust carved and scroll-edged arm supports to the present settee and its vase shaped splat is of distinctive outline as well. Cescinsky notes that the one featured on page 171, also with distinctive eagles' mask carved arm supports, was formerly at Dudley House, Park Lane in London.
This Dudley House model also appears as a lithographic colour plate, when it formed part of the renowned furniture collector Percival Griffith's collection, in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Vol. 3, 1954 revised edition, New York, pl. V, p.82.
