A pair of George II red japanned side chairs circa 1735, attributed to Giles Grendey

each with pierced arched cresting centered by a shell above a lyre-form backrest centered by a shell-form splat, the caned square seat above a a shaped apron raised on cabriole legs joined by an H-stretcher and ending in claw and ball feet

Probably originally part of a set of twenty-four brought to England by M. Harris & Sons, London, from Spain, circa 1935.
Twenty chairs with Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten for their newly renovated apartment, Brooke House, London.
In the Collection of Mr. David and Lady Pamela Hicks, Britwell Salome House, Oxfordshire, sold Sotheby’s London, The Contents of Britwell House, March 20-22, 1979, in three lots 16-18.  
Acquired from Partridge Fine Arts, London, 26th June 1991.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Furniture History Society, 1986.pp.371-2.
A Catalogue of the Principal Works of Art at Chequers, H.M.S.O., 1923, P.58, No.334, pl.XL11.
Norma Major, Chequers, London, 1997, p.151 detail of the back of one chair
R.W.Symonds, 'English 18th Century Furniture Exports to Spain and Portugal', The Burlington Magazine, February 1941,  pp.57-60, pls. I & 11.
A related example sold Sotheby`s New York, 26th May 2000, Steinberg Collection, lot 195.

Overall good condition, showing a nice original orange red surface, with the decoration refreshed, the chairs have original caning, with one seat in need of repair, one side rail with some shrinking and there are some losses to gilding.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

These lyre-form back chairs with pierced shell-form splats belong to a group of chairs traditionally attributed to the workshop of Giles Grendey, of Clerkenwell, London. A set of six walnut chairs which belonged to the Earls of Poulett at Hinton House, Somerset, being attributed to Grendey, have almost identical backs and splats and are stamped with journeymen’s initials ‘W.F.’ Two other walnut chairs attributed to Grendey with the same type of lyre-form back with pierced shell splat are part of the collection of furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Lucy Wood, in the Lady Lever Collection catalogue, describes at least fifteen other groups of chairs with similar backs and splats as the present pair and states that ‘In view of the enormous scale of Grendey’s workshop in Clerkenwell, and its documentary connection with at least three models that occur in very large numbers… it does seem likely that the great majority of 18^th-century examples of these patterns are in fact the product of his [Grendey’s] manufactory.’

Whilst the present chairs do not bear Grendey’s paper label, ten other of this same group are stamped with a journeyman’s initial ‘I.R,’ a characteristic used to identify pieces by Grendey’s workshop. Furthermore, the decoration of the present chairs is very similar to that of a very large suite of furniture (approximately seventy-seven pieces) made by Grendey for the Duke Infantado of Lazcano Castle, Spain in the 1730s/40s. The majority of this famous suite was bought by the Venice-based American dealer Adolph Loewi in 1930 from Lazcano Castle. The following year, Loewi sold twenty-four side chairs, four armchairs and two girandoles to Walter Rosen for the dining room of his house, Caramoor, Katonah, New York. A number of pieces from the suite are in public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria, and Temple Newsam House.

The Infantado chairs are of a more archaic form which continued to be popular in Spain until succeeded by French rococo and Chippendale ‘Director’ designs in the 1750s/60s. The design of these chairs was more suited to the Spanish taste including the use of caned seats, high-hipped cabriole legs and stretchers which were typically used in Spanish furniture at that period. However, the maker of these chairs uses a decorative scheme which was considered ‘modern’ in the early Georgian period by combining Chinoiserie and Roman motifs: the scallop shell back splat and cresting, the Apollonian lyre back rests and the painted shells to the knees evoke Venus’s water-birth. The painted Chinese figures and Chinese foliage and flowers, such as prunus, chrysanthemums, and lotus flowers evoke the Orient.

GILES GRENDEY

Grendey’s first workshop was at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, moving to the premises in St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell, in 1722 where he developed a thriving export trade. It was reported in various newspapers on August 7, 1731, including the Daily Post and Daily Advertiser, that Grendey was described as being ‘the greatest loser, among the stock destroyed being ‘an easy Chair of such rich and curious Workmanship, that he had refus’d 500 guineas for it, being intended, ‘tis said to be purchas’d by a Person of Quality who design’d it as a Present to a German Prince’ and furniture to the value of £1,000, which he had “packed’d for Exportation against the next Morning.” Like much of Grendey’s furniture, many pieces retain his printed paper trade label, together with a number of stamped initials which can be identified with the names of his apprentices. These labels and initials have allowed a number of attributions to be made which have expanded his oeuvre, his actual documented work being very sparse.

BROOK HOUSE AND BRITWELL HOUSE

Brook House, London was built by the 1^st Lord Tweedmouth to the design of T. H. Wyatt in 1867-69 and the first floor rooms were designed by Wright and Mansfield. By 1905, the 2^nd Earl sold the house to Ernest Cassel, the great financier and was ultimately inherited by Lady Louis Mountbatten, his granddaughter in the early 1930s. The Mountbattens quickly turned the house into a block of flats from 1933-35 adding lifts and moving into the Penthouse apartment, which was designed by the American decorator Mrs Cosden. Some of the present chairs are illustrated in the entrance hall and dining room of the Mountbatten’s ‘modern’ American style apartment in Country Life, June 24, 1939.

The chairs were to become a part of another grand interior namely that of Britwell House, Oxfordshire, the home of David and Lady Pamela Hicks. In 1960 David Hicks, who was becoming very famous as an interior designer, married Lady Pamela Mountbatten, daughter of Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten. The same year, he bought Britwell House, Oxfordshire, an intimate Palladian brick mansion with magnificent baroque interior architecture, which had been built in 1727-29 by Sir Edward Simeon. Hicks used it as his ‘laboratory, showplace and refuge for 18 years’, before selling it and the contents in 1978/79. Britwell was the subject of two Country Life articles in 1972, one of which illustrates the chairs in the long gallery between fluted Ionic pilasters and juxtaposed with pieces of modern art.