A pair of George II carved walnut side chairs, circa 1730-40

This beautifully drawn pair of walnut side chairs originally belonged to a much larger suite - possibly up to fourteen corresponding with the incised numerals to the seat rails - and would have been intended to complement the emerging neo-Palladian iconography of fashionable early Georgian interiors. The dominant theme here is Venus, goddess of love, which is expressed emphatically with the scalloped shell to the cresting and apron. The leafy scrolled knee is a vestige from chair design of the 1720s, but the claw and ball foot is a distinctive Palladian device, thought to evoke Jupiter, supreme ruler of gods and mortals whose symbol was the eagle. The chairs share much in common with Giles Grendy's labelled oeuvre, making him a possible candidate for their authorship. Technically, they are very accomplished as the ergonomic, curved backrest was complex to execute requiring additional timber for the thicknessing of the uprights. 

An identical set of four side chairs bearing the crest of the Vaughans of Courtfield, Welsh Bicknor, sold Sotheby's, London, 26 October 2016, lot 1136. The Courtfield chairs had similarly incised front seat rails, numbered II, V, VIII and XII, suggesting the present pair may have at one time belonged to the same long run.

A further related example, with an identical backrest, formed part of Judge Irwin Untermyer’s bequest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Accession Number 64.101.950) and is illustrated John Gloag, English Furniture with some Furniture of other countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Thames and Hudson, 1958, pl. 77, fig. 102.