Comprising eight side chairs and a pair of armchairs, each with a waved toprail above a pierced interlaced splat, the arms with serpentine arms and shaped supports carved with foliage, above a padded drop-in seat covered in green silk floral damask, the seat-rail carved with C-scrolls, trellis and foliate-cartouches, on acanthus-carved cabriole legs with claw-and-ball feet, the drop-in seat-frames original, seven with original webbing and scrim, one frame inscribed 'PAV' beside a naïve drawing of a house, another frame inscribed 'the elbow for York (?) [or] your', minor variations in carving
Side chairs: 38½ in. (98 cm.) high; 24 in. (61 cm.) wide; 23½ in. (60 cm.) deep
Armchairs: 38¾ in. (98.5 cm.) high; 26½ in. (67.5 cm.) wide; 25 in. (63.5 cm.) deep

Property of a European Noble Family.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 12 February 1988, lot 71.

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Lot Essay

These finely carved dining chairs, with their pagoda hats, intricately carved interlaced splat and sinuous curves encapsulate the elegant fusion of the Rococo, 'Chinese' and 'Gothick' styles which peaked in the decorative arts in the middle of the 18th century. The distinctly pierced splat with carved rosettes of these chairs, along with their cabriole legs with claw-and-ball feet, appear on a chair and a settee in the collection of W.H. Lever, illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, 1911, vol. II, pp. 182-83. Furthermore, a set of six dining-chairs with a very similarly carved splat and acanthus-tipped top-rail supports sold Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1997, lot 65.

Certain features of present the chairs suggest that they may have been carved in Ireland. The stylised flowerheads, incised diaper-work and interlaced splat all point to the idiosyncrasies which differentiate Irish and English carving of the period. The chairs are also notable for their construction, the unusually carved seat rails being in solid mahogany, unlike most chairs of the period which were typically made from beech and veneered in mahogany.