Details
Each rectangular back with re-entrant upper corners and a trellis fretwork panel, the canted arms each enclosing a trellis panel, the drop-in seats with green striped silk upholstery, on straight legs with brackets and pierced stretchers, impressed with Roman numerals 'I' and 'II'
37 in. (94 cm.) high, 2612 in. (67.5 cm.) wide, 22 in. (56 cm.) deep
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 1 Feb 1992, lot 337.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 102.
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Lot Essay

These library chairs, intended to be furnished with leather squab cushions, are notable examples of a highly fashionable pattern in the George II 'Chinese' manner. Their fretted-trellis backs derive from the type of patterns published in W. Halfpenny Twenty New Designs of Chinese Lattice (1750), E. Hoppus The Gentleman and Builder's Repository (1760) and J. Crunden and J. Morris The Carpenter's Companion for Chinese Railings and Gates (1765). The octagonal form of the central tablet is featured on a Chinese chair pattern in Chippendale's Director, 1754, pl.XXVII. Chippendale considered these chairs 'very proper for a Lady's Dressing-Room; especially if it is hung with India paper... They have commonly cane bottoms, with loose cushions'.

The chairs are closely related to the well-known set of chairs and matching window seat commissioned by the 4th Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House, Gloucester and still at the house (see P. Macquoid, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, p.258 pl. 245).

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