An important pair of George III giltwood sofas circa 1770

each serpentine leaf-molded cresting rail centered by a stylized shell above an upholstered backrest flanked by upholstered sides, the upholstered armrests continuing to scrolled handholds on cabriole supports, the serpentine-fronted seat carved with gadrooned molding and centered between each leg with a stylized shell, raised on leaf-carved and gadrooned molded cabriole legs.  The whole upholstered with 19th century English needlework.

Henry, Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood, Chesterfield, House, circa 1922-1931

Mallett, London

Private Collection, Fort Worth, Texas

Sold, in these rooms, January 22, 1994, lot 233

Good condition; re-gilt; the 19th century needlework upholstery in good condition with restorations and some in-stitching in places and some slight discoloration; needlework is stable; the gilding with some small chips and losses - mainly around feet and to edges of cresting rails; the gilding is stable overall; each sofa with later corner blocks; some old worm damage to seat rails; some minor separations over lines of construction of legs and rails; legs are sturdy the settees are solid. One sofa with an old repaired break and restoration to the top of the center front left leg with some splicing to top at join with rail.
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.

These settees with their graceful lines and delicately gadrooned edges typify transitional pieces of furniture made in the late 1760s into the early 1770s which bridge the rococo and neoclassical periods in England.  These settees share a number of similarities to seat furniture by some of the top London cabinet makers of the period including John Linnell and John Cobb.  The original history of the settees is unclear, though they are documented at Chesterfield House in a photo, circa 1922 of the drawing room together with a suite of chairs.  It is interesting to note that they appear to have been white-painted and parcel –gilt at that time.  These settees are not similar to the work which Chippendale executed for Lascelles' country house Harewood House, Yorkshire and could have been inherited from numerous sources or perhaps bought in the late 19^th or early 20^th centuries.

John Linnell

John Linnell supplied a very similar suite of furniture including chairs and a pair of settees to William Drake for his house Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, circa 1768. (Hayward and Kirkham, pp. 34, 127, figs. 61 and 250)  The suit is very similar with the use of shells to the center of the cresting rails and aprons and very similar legs and moldings.  This suite was gilded and covered with red damask for the drawing room, the last of the major public rooms to be furnished by Linnell for Drake, the commission having begun in 1765.  It is interesting to note that Robert Adam had been paid for designs to remodel the old Elizabethan house, which were never executed.  The chairs are similar to a design of a ‘French chair’ by Linnell circa 1765-70 (V&A E. 59 1929) (Hayward and Kirkham, p. 33, fig. 60) and of a sofa, circa 1770 (V&A E. 141 1929 (Hayward and Kirkham, p. 129).  The suite is now in the collection of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

John Cobb

The settees with distinctive gadrooned edges and finely carved knees are similar to a group of seat furniture traditionally associated with the celebrated cabinet-maker John Cobb (d.1778) of St. Martin's Lane and `upholsterer' to George III from 1761. A related settee was sold, Christie's, London, The Property of Henry Hirsch, 10 June, 1931, lot 45.  Further examples of this type of seat furniture are illustrated in R. W. Symonds, `The French Style in English Furniture', The Antique Collector, July-August 1950; M. Harris, The English Chair, rev. ed, 1948, p.142, pl.LXX; Francis Lenygon, Furniture in England, 1914, fig.101; Lanto Synge, Mallett Millennium, London, 1999, pp. 158, 161, fig. 192; a suite of six armchairs and a settee from the de Souza Collection, Lisbon, is illustrated, Partridge, Summer Exhibition, 1974, pp. 106-107

Harewood House, Hanover Square

Roxburghe House, later renamed Harewood House, was located in Hanover Square, London and was the London residence of the Dukes of Roxburghe.  John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe (1740–1804) succeeded to the dukedom on 20 August 1755, while a schoolboy at Eton College, which he left in 1758.  Whilst on his grand tour of Europe he met and fell in love with Christiana Sophia Albertina, eldest daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz whom he intended to marry; however, when George III married her sister Charlotte in 1761, the Duke’s engagement was sadly called off, and Roxburghe stayed a bachelor for the remainder of his life.  He employed Robert Adam to remodel the house from 1776-1778.  Roxburghe was an avid book collector amassing a huge library rivaling George III’s own library which he moved to his new house No. 13 St. James Square in 1795.  It appears that he sold Roxburghe house to Edward Lascelles that year as a bill dated 5 August 1796 from the Chippendale firm totaling £564, 15S 2d lists furniture ordered for both Harewood House in Yorkshire and the newly purchased London townhouse in Hanover Square (Beard and Gilbert, p. 168).  The Lascelles' sold the house in 1895 to the Royal Agricultural Society, and it was subsequently demolished in 1908.

Chesterfield House

Chesterfield House was built by the 4^th Earl of Chesterfield in the 1750s and was designed by Isaac Ware in a very French manner.  The highly rococo plasterwork pervaded the house and was very fashionable for the time.  The Earls of Chesterfield continued living in the house until 1870 and it had been virtually unaltered.  It was sold to subsequent owners until the early 1920s when Henry, Viscount Lascelles, son of the 5^th Earl of Harwood, bought it before his marriage to the Princess Royal, daughter of George V and Queen Mary in 1922.   By 1931, the young couple decided to give up Chesterfield house, and it was demolished in 1934.  Some of the contents went to Harewood, their country seat, while other pieces were sold, some of which ended up in The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  It is interesting to note that the Lord Lascelles, the 6^th Earl of Harwood was also heir to his great-uncle the 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde, and inherited his entire collection including paintings and furniture.  For example, a set of chairs by Morel and Hughes with rams heads were part of the inheritance from Clanricarde and are illustrated in situ at Chesterfield House in 1922 (Tipping, p. 240 and Cornforth, pp. 106-107); however, there is no evidence that the Clanricardes maintained any 18th century pieces of furniture or bequeathed them.

Comparative Literature:

John Cornforth, London Interiors, London, 2000
Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986
Helena Hayward and Pat Kirkham, William and John Linnell, New York, 1980
H. Avray Tipping, ‘Chesterfield House, Mayfair’, Country Life, February 25, 1922