The rectangular padded back, shaped sides, arms and seat covered in associated early 18th century gros and petit-point needlework, on cabriole legs headed by a pendant-hung shell with gadrooned angle-brackets, on claw-and-ball feet with recessed castors, probably adapted from a sofa and reduced in depth and width; together with an associated gros and petit-point needlework cushion
43 in. (109 cm.) high; 32 in. (82.5 cm.) wide; 33 in. (84 cm.) deep

Possibly acquired for Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire, by Thomas Bowater Vernon (1832-1859) or Sir Harry Foley Vernon, 1st Baronet, (1834 - 1920);
Acquired by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, M.C. (1882-1948), for the Long Gallery, Upton House, Warwickshire circa 1927 and by descent.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 15 April 1999, lot 58.

H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, Period IV, vol. I, London, 1920, p. 402, fig. 492.
G. Jackson Stops, 'A baroque house and its furnishing: The Hanbury Hall inventory of 1721', Apollo, May 1994, ill.
A. Oswald, 'Upton House, Warwickshire - I', Country Life, 5 September 1936, p. 251, fig. 8 (shown in situ in the Long Gallery).
S. Murray, 'Upton House, Warwickshire', Country Life, 11 June 1992, p. 144, fig. 4 (shown in situ in the Long Gallery).

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Lot Essay

This armchair belongs to a suite of seat furniture, with serpentine legs embellished with husk-enriched Venus-shells and terminating in ringed eagle-claws, that corresponds to a walnut suite supplied by William Hallett (d. 1781) of Long Acre in 1735 for the London house of Arthur Ingram, 6th Viscount Irwin (d. 1736) and later removed to Temple Newsam House, Yorkshire. The bill for the Irwin suite was submitted by Hallett in August 1735, the eighteen chairs costing £20 14s 0d, and the two sofas, £4 18s 0d. The suite was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 29 June 1978, lot 19 (C. Gilbert, 'Newly Discovered Furniture by William Hallett', The Connoisseur, December 1964, pp. 224-225). A pair of side chairs from the suite from Hanbury were sold Sotheby's, London, 2 May 2017, lot 123 (£60,000, including premium). A chair with the same patterned feet was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1898 (R. Edwards, A History of the English Chair, London, 1951, no. 58).

The early 18th Century French needlework, with colourful acanthus-wrapped and ribboned arabesques woven on a golden ground, displays cartouches of flowered brackets and fanciful figures engaged in weaving; while the seat cartouche displays an auspicious vignette and dragon-guarded tazza of fruit. The scenes relate to Chinese woodblock prints or porcelain ornament of the Kangxi period (1662-1722). Similar Chinoiserie cartouches appear on a set of mid-18th Century French giltwood fauteuils by Pierre Bara, in the Drawing Room at Scone Palace, illustrated in Scone Palace, Guide Book. One of the seat backs displays Chinese acrobats and another has astronomers flanking a globe wearing costumes and feathered hats and the seats have dragon cartouches. The needlework is attributed to the workshop of the tapissier Planqu at St. Cyr.