CIRCA 1775, IN THE MANNER OF JOHN LINNELL

This set of dining chairs illustrate the neo-classical style embraced by cabinet-makers such as Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) and John Linnell (1729-96) in the 1770s, a style that was subsequently developed to a more severe aesthetic in designs by James Wyatt (S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, Woodbridge, 2008, plates 108-109), Hepplewhite (The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Guide, 1788, pl. 8) and Sheraton (The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book, third edition, 1803, no. 22, pl. 2). The design of the chair-backs of this set most closely resemble a rough sketch by Linnell, circa 1768-70, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (illustrated H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, p. 40, fig. 73) while the tapered and moulded front legs are found in Chippendale’s oeuvre: on dining chairs supplied to Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire, circa 1772, and on bergères, 1776, made for the dining room at Paxton House, Berwickshire – although the present chairs do not exhibit the typical Chippendale spade or block foot found with this type of support (C. Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, p. 91, fig. 147; p. 99, fig. 162). A set of ten comparable chairs to the present example, circa 1775, by Linnell are at Osterley Park, Middlesex (NT 771761.1-10); another pair of chairs of related design, probably from Basset Down, Wiltshire, sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2012, lot 220, £11,250 (inc. premium). A further set of chairs of similar model was in the collection of Lord Leverhulme at Thornton Manor, Cheshire, illustrated in L. Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, vol. II, New Haven and London, 2008, Appendix I, p. 1014, TM 125.

CHARLES BRIDGER ORME CLARKE (1864-1935)
While the identity of the 18th Century maker remains for obscure, these chairs were subsequently in the early 20th century collection of Charles Bridger Orme Clarke (1864-1935), a wealthy coal merchant and shipowner, important collector of fine English and French furniture, tapestries, porcelain and paintings, whose younger brother, Louis Colville Gray Clarke (1881-1960), became Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in 1937. From 1928 until his demise in March 1935, Clarke leased Wiston Park, an Elizabethan mansion in Steyning, Sussex, from the Goring family, who owned the house from 1868, where these chairs were almost certainly situated. Three posthumous sales held at Christie’s on 7 and 8 May 1936, and 30 June 1949, illustrate the extent and quality of Clarke’s collection at Wiston. Although the present set of chairs do not feature in the sales catalogues, Clarke made gifts during his lifetime and bequeathed works of art to, for example, the Victoria & Albert Museum (C.389-391-1919; T.1&2-1940), and the National Gallery; bequests to the V & A include, a mahogany settee and four ribbon-back chairs (W.64-65-1935), described by the then Director of the V & A, H. Clifford Smith, as ‘of superlative quality, representing the highest achievement of English craftsmen in the rococo style’ – although their creation date has since been revised (L. Wood, ‘Tied up in knots: Three centuries of the ribbon-back chair’, Furniture History Society, vol. 51, 2015, Appendix, p. 261).