ATTRIBUTED TO THE ROBERTS FAMILY, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

The chairs can be attributed to the court chair-maker Thomas Roberts (d.1714) or his son Richard Roberts (d.1733), who traded at 'The Royal Chair' in Marylebone Street, Westminster. Richard succeeded his father as carver and joiner to the Royal Household and supplied a suite of twenty-three chairs and two sofas with related legs to Sir Robert Walpole, later 1st Earl of Orford (d. 1745) for Houghton Hall, Norfolk, eight chairs for the 'Cov'd or Wrought Bedchamber' and the remainder in the 'Cabinett'. With their channelled cabriole legs and distinctive spreading hoof feet, the Houghton chairs and those offered here are closely related to those upholstered with Italian cut velvet and supplied circa 1714-15 for Sir William Humphreys, Lord Mayor of London (R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964, p. 135, fig. 75). Two pairs of chairs from the Houghton walnut and parcel-gilt suite were sold Christie's, London, Works of Art from Houghton, 8 December 1994, lots 126 and 127 (sold £260,000 and £95,000 including premium respectively) (see also G. Beard and J. Cross, 'Thomas and Richard Roberts', Apollo, September 1998, pp. 46-48 and G. Beard, Upholsterers and Interior Furnishing in England 1530-1840, London 1997, p. 149 and fig. 167).

The 'broken' cabriole leg was popularised around 1715, the pattern possibly derived from Chinese k'ang tables and beds. A suite of giltwood seat furniture displaying this pattern of leg was supplied by James Moore in 1716 - 22 to the 1st Duke of Marlborough (d.1622) for Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture, Woodbridge, 2009, pp. 154 - 5, pl. 4.18), and another green japanned chair was at Erddig, Denbighshire (Edwards, op. cit. p. 135, fig. 73). The pattern was commonly executed in walnut and embellished with marquetry as in the present case, and a closely related suite was supplied for Elizabeth Bowes-Blakiston (d.1725) of Streatlam Castle, Co. Durham (Bowettt, op. cit. p. 155, pl. 4.19 and 4.20). Another set of walnut and marquetry chairs featuring the same leg pattern and hoof foot as the present lot was supplied to Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 3rd Earl of Strafford, for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, and these too are attributed to Richard Roberts.