CIRCA 1755, POSSIBLY BY VILE AND COBB

THE COBHAM HALL PROVENANCE
These richly scrolled chairs formed part of a suite commissioned for Cobham Hall in Kent by John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley (1719-1781). The Earl was the second son of John Bligh, 1st Earl of Darnley (1687-1728) and his wife, Theodosia, Baroness Clifton (1695-1722). He succeeded to the title upon the death of his elder brother, Edward (1715-1747) and served as a Member of Parliament as well as the Irish House of Commons. Over the course of his life, he devoted much time and money to extending and aggrandizing Cobham Hall, including a large program of improvements and several payments to George Shakespear in 1771-1774 for his role as architect and contractor, in addition to some payments to Sir William Chambers. Over a period of twenty years beginning in 1761, Lord Darnley's account books record payments totaling almost £4,000 to Messrs. Ince and Mayhew for furnishings, including a suite which was later to be sold Christie's, New York, 11 October 2007, lots 200-202. The present chairs, however, date prior to Earl's patronage of Ince and Mayhew and may have been executed by acclaimed Royal cabinet-makers, Messrs. William Vile and John Cobb, whom the Earl patronized in the 1750s and 1760s. In particular, he paid Vile £103 in 1759, at which time such chairs would have been highly fashionable (Messrs. Coutts Bank archive).

At least one chair from the suite was photographed in the early twentieth century for Country Life, appearing by one of the two monumental marble fireplaces in the long gallery at Cobham. One of these images was published in the 18 June 1904 edition of the magazine, and the other, though unused in print, is nonetheless preserved in the Country Life Image Archive (ID no. L5499). Although the chair in each image is small or partially cropped, the distinctive carving and sinuous legs make it unmistakable. The present pair remained at Cobham Hall until 1957, at which time they were described as "gilt over mahogany", presumably referring to a ninteenth-century gilding, in line with contemporary fashion. Some decades later, a chair still at the house was photographed in situ in the state dressing-room, see J. Cornforth 'Cobham Hall, Kent III', Country Life, 10 March 1983, pp. 568 - 571, fig. 5. A further pair from the suite was sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 23 May 2012 (£91,250); a single sofa was sold from the Collection of Niki & Joe Gregory at Sotheby's, New York, 24 October 2013 ($81,250).

THE DESIGN
These elegant drawing-room chairs have serpentined frames flowered with Roman foliage in the French 'picturesque' fashion popularized as 'Modern' in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754-1762. Beaded acanthus-flowers issue from Ionic wave-scrolled cartouches formed by the reeds that wrap the legs, while their involuted feet are embossed with water-bubbles. Similar elements feature on a related walnut throne, commissioned for the Palace of Westminster by the Duke of Ancaster, Lord Great Chamberlain to George III. Richly carved 'with a Scrole & leaf on the feet & Elbows', it was supplied for the 1761 coronation by Katherine Naish, daughter of Henry Williams (d. 1759) the Court chair-maker to the 'Great Wardrobe' in George II's reign, and upholstered by Messrs William Vile and John Cobb, 'Upholsterers' to George III (H. Roberts, 'Royal Thrones, 1760-1840s, Furniture History, 1989, pp. 65 and 66, fig. 7).

See also the related suite of six giltwood library chairs and two sofas, attributed to John Cobb and thought to have been supplied by him to the Earl of Coventry at Croome Court in 1768. Described in an account dated that year as "chairs carv'd and gilt burnish'd gold," they follow the same pattern as an earlier, ungilt set in mahogany, comprising six armchairs and two sofas, supplied by Vile and Cobb to the Earl as recorded in a bill dated June 25, 1761. The giltwood suite was subsequently sold Christie's, London, 18 November 1982, lot 21, and the earlier mahogany suite was sold Sotheby's, London, 25 June 1948, lot 137. Another related suite in the 'French taste', also attributed to Cobb, is the set of six gilt armchairs probably commissioned by George, 2nd Earl of Pomfret and his wife Anna Maria Draycott circa 1760; sold from the Estate of Christian, Lady Hesketh at Sotheby's, London, 7 March 2007, lots 55-57.