A large George III giltwood sofa, attributed to Thomas Chippendale

with a bay leaf carved frame, the padded and dished back with a festooned medallion and tablet crest, the padded arms with serpentine uprights above a cushioned seat and shaped rail on six fluted turned tapering legs with guilloche collars and two plain rear turned tapering legs, on later castors, now upholstered in slate blue floral brocade

Acquired by Christian, Lady Hesketh.

John Kenworthy-Browne, 'Easton Neston, Northamptonshire: 2', The Connoisseur, September-December 1964, p.142;
Christian, Lady Hesketh, 'Easton Neston, Nicholas Hawksmoor's Baroque Creation in Northamptonshire', Architectural Digest, January 1991, p.144, shown in situ in the Tapestry Bedroom

Designed in the neo-classical taste, the attribution of this sofa to Thomas Chippendale is based on its close relationship to a number of similar documented chairs and sofas which have the same profile and carved decorative detail. It would have originally formed part of a larger suite which would have included further sofas and chairs, but as yet these have not been traced. The various elements of the carving, particularly the overlapping bay-leaf ornament on the seat frame appears on suites of seat furniture supplied to both Brocket Hall and to Nostell Priory, whereas the distinctive trumpet-form fluted leg with variant ornamented collars appear on a suite supplied to Egremont House, London, or Petworth House, Sussex; the husk-draped tablet on the seat rail is similar to that on a pair of sofas at Newby Hall. The most curious, and seemingly unique, part of the design is the profile of the back; in all other recorded examples these are arched at the centre, the present example being curved downwards. The centre tablet is unusually set below the carved frame of the back and surmounted by a husk festooned medallion which is a variant to that on the Brocket Hall suite.

From the documented surviving suites of seat furniture by Chippendale and those which are attributed to him, including the present example, it is obvious that he was a prolific chair- maker. The basic design of his ‘house’ chair in the 1770s was ingeniously adapted to the taste and pockets of his clients by his subtle use of carved ornament invariably in the neo-classical taste, betraying the influence of Robert Adam. This was adapted to suit the richness or plainness of the room in which they were to be placed, which varied from state rooms to secondary bedrooms, as were the surfaces, which were either gilded or japanned.       

Related literature;

Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978