The serpentine crest-rail surmounted by a pierced lion's mask issuing a fan from his mouth and flanked by scrolling foliage, above a baluster-shaped back-splat carved with strapwork and pendant bellflowers in low relief flanked by caned panels, with a shaped seat-rail centered by lappets, on cabriole legs carved at the knees with lion masks issuing foliage, on paw feet, joined by a flattened shaped stretcher centered by a shell, with a caned seat and associated cushion
48³⁄₄ in. (123.8 cm.) high, 22¹⁄₂ in. (57.2 cm.) wide, 17¹⁄₂ in. (44.5 cm.) deep

Part of a large set that was possibly owned by the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire.
Possibly thence by descent to his daughter, who married Marc Antonio Borghese.
By tradition, by descent at the Palazzo Borghese, Rome and apparently recorded in 19th century inventories until sold by Prince Paolo Borghese, Palazzo Borghese, Rome, 28 March - 9 April 1892.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 8 April 1986, lot 285.
Christie’s, New York, 19 April 2001, lot 230.

Other chairs from the set:
A set of twelve chairs, some with traces of their original scarlet japanning was purchased by an unknown buyer in the above sale, lots 616-618 and were later sold from the Collection of Clarence Wilson, Esq., Christie's London, 2 June 1913, lot 123.
Acquired at the above sale by 1st Viscount Leverhulme for The Hill, Hampstead and now in the public collections at The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.

A set of five chairs, also with traces of original scarlet japanning, was sold Christie's London, 14 July 1977, lot 114 and was later sold, together with three later copies, by a private collector, Sotheby's, New York, 21 January 1989, lot 164.

Two further chairs are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. 31-79.1 and 58.84).

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Lot Essay

The chairback's floral embellished strapwork is inspired from French designs popularized at the beginning of the 18th century by Daniel Marot's Oeuvres, 1712. Similar strapwork designs together with bacchic lion masks and Venus's shell badge appear on the celebrated suite of gilt-gesso furniture supplied to Richard Temple, 2st Viscount Cobham for Stowe, Buckinghamshire in the 1740s that has been attributed to the maker Benjamin Goodison. The majority of the suite is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, but a pair of side tables were sold by Christie's London, 9 July 1998, lot 100. A design published by the architectural publishers Thomas and Batty Langley, City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, 1740, plate CXLVII features similar lion masks with rings and long pendant acanthus and with paw feet. The lion masks issuing acanthus appear on other seat-furniture of this period including a parcel-gilt walnut suite probably commissioned for Sir Thomas Gooch, 2nd Bt. (d.1754) or his son, also Thomas, for Benacre Hall, Suffolk and sold Sotheby's, house sale, 9-11 May 2000, lot 272; and on a walnut chair from Lord Leverhulme's collection illustrated in J.C. Rogers, English Furniture, Middlesex, 1923, p. 204, fig.121.

THE BORGHESE SUITE
This chair may form part of a larger set belonging to the Borghese family and apparently listed in the nineteenth century inventories at the Palazzo Borghese, Rome until the collection was sold in 1892. In recent years, it has been put forth that this set might have been commissioned for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury for Ingestre Hall in Staffordshire whose daughter married Marc Antonio Borghese, thus explaining the presence of an English set of chairs in Rome. While is it tempting to subscribe to this theory, it is equally plausible that these chairs were made for direct export to Italy.

The furniture export trade from England to Continental Europe was a prolific one that can be substantiated by records of the Clerkenwell maker Giles Grendey (d.1780) whose lavish trade with Spain and Portugal is well known (see C. Gilbert, 'Furniture by Giles Grendey for the Spanish Trade', The Magazine Antiques, April 1971, pp. 544-550). Interestingly, many of the pieces Grendey exported, including items in his celebrated commission for the Duke of Infantado, were decorated in gilt on a scarlet japanned ground. Similarly, many chairs of this model (including some of the Lady Lever chairs, and the set sold at Sotheby's in 1989) show evidence of an original decoration scheme of scarlet japanning with the carved elements highlighted in gilding. Others of this model, including this example which retains its original oil gilt surface, lack evidence of a japanned surface.

The 'Borghese' suite is admittedly conceived in a quite idiosyncratic fashion. Features such as the pierced lion cresting and flat shaped stretchers are unusual in English furniture design on the whole, although a chair of virtually the same form but displaying an open shell-carved cresting and knees replacing the lion motifs and with similarly shell-carved seatrail is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, vol.I, New York, n.d., p.82, fig.107.