An important set of six George II polychrome painted hall chairs circa 1730

Each with inverted baluster slightly-spooned panel back above a trapezoidal dished seat over paneled supports joined by a serpentine medial stretcher, painted with armorial of the Duke of Leeds, Hornby Castle, and leaf motif, en grisaille and polychrome.

Perigrine Hyde Osborne, 3^rd Duke of Leeds (b. 1691-d.1731) or his son Thomas Osborne, 4^th Duke of Leeds (b. 1713-d.1789)
Thence by descent to Francis Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds, Hornby Castle
Mr. and Mrs. Basil Ionides, Buxted Park, Sussex
The Ionides Collection, sold, Sotheby's London, November 1, 1963, lot 175 (set of thirteen)
Colefax & Fowler Antiques, London
Sotheby's New York, April 25, 1986, lot 33
Alistair Sampson Antiques, London, June 19, 1989 (set of four)

Giles Worsley, England's Lost Houses, London, 2002, p. 93 (showing the chairs in situ in the hall at Buxted Park, Sussex, circa 1950)

Overall the chairs are sturdy; there are probably some restorations to the paint throughout but it appears that the chairs maintain the majority of their original decoration; minor differences in painting to the leopard heads and to the coats of arms and crests; rubbing and wear to the edges of the backrests and seats; small chips and losses to paint throughout with scratches and wear to extremities. chair 1 - with thin vertical age crack to left side of backrest; wear to seat; thing vertical age crack to front support. chair 2 - the backrest slightly loose; the very back left corner of the seat behind the backrest with a thin age crack. chair 3 - with slightly loose backrest; seat with wear and extensive chips and small losses to paint; front support with thing vertical age crack. chair 4- with very mildly loose backrest; seat with extensive small chips and losses to paint and with some wear. chair 5 - with some large chips and losses to paint of backrest as visible in the catalogue illustration; top right of backrest with thin age crack; some in-painting to bottom right of backrest; seat with some old chips and losses to paint and with later inpainting; the whole with a slightly glossy surface, probably a clear varnish to help protect the original paint. chair 6 - backrest slightly loose; bottom of backrest with some chips to paint; seat with minor chips to paint and with some minor wear.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present set of hall chairs must have been commissioned by the Perigrine Hyde Osborne, 3^rd Duke of Leeds (b. 1691-d.1731) or his son Thomas Osborne, 4^th Duke of Leeds (b. 1713-d.1789) for either Kiveton Hall, Yorkshire or their house at Wimbeldon, Surrey.  It is more likely that they were commissioned by the later Duke perhaps in celebration of his elevation to the Dukedom in 1731.  These chairs are very similar to a set of eighteen hall chairs of ‘sgabello’ typed supplied by George Nix to the Countess of Dysart and the Duke of Lauderdale at Ham House, in 1730 for £18 (Beard and Gilbert, op. cit.p. 649).  Like the chairs offered, the backs are painted with the Tollemache family coat of arms (illustrated, Thornton and Tomlin, fig. 152); however, each of these chairs is varnished and not painted like the present chairs.

These chairs possibly were moved to Hornby Castle, Yorkshire after the castle was inherited from the D’Arcy family after the marriage of Francis Osborne, 5^th Duke of Leeds (1751-1799) to Lady Amelia D’Arcy in 1773, daughter and sole heiress of the 4th Earl of Holderness.  Kiveton Hall was built between 1694- 1704 for Sir Thomas Osborne, Bt. (1632-1713), who quickly rose through the ranks of the peerage being created Barons Osborne of Kiveton and Viscount Latimer of Danby (1673), Earl of Danby (1674) and was made Knight of the Garter (1677); following the revolution, he was made Maquess of Carmarthen in 1689 and in 1694, was made Duke of Leeds.  A group of gilt-gesso furniture including a daybed and sofa bearing the arms of the Duke of Leeds, now in the collection at Temple Newsam House and attributed to Philip Guibert (or Gilbert) correspond to two gilt-gesso tables listed in the inventory of 1727 in the ‘Great Bedchamber’ and ‘South-East Bedchamber’ at Kiveton which bear the Duke’s coronet and cypher DL for the Duke of Leeds.  The two tables were moved to Hornby Castle in the 19^th century after Kiveton’s demolition.

These chairs were photographed in situ at Buxted Park, Sussex in 1950 when they were in the collection of Basil Ionides, one of the most successful decorators of the period best known for the Savoy Theatre.  Tragically, there was a fire at Buxted on 2 February 1940, which left the house a gutted shell.  Ten years later, Ionides had re-built the interior of the House filling it with antiques and art either brought from his London house or newly bought to furnish the new interiors. (Worsley, op. cit., p. 92).

References:

Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986.

Peter Thornton and Maurice Tomlin, Furniture History,1980.

Giles Worsley, England’s Lost Houses, London, 2002