HOTUNG | 何東 The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung | Part II: Day

A pair of George III carved mahogany armchairs, circa 1760

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

December 8, 05:58 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 40,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A pair of George III carved mahogany armchairs, circa 1760

the pierced backrest with interlocking hoops and terminating in a gadrooned shoe, the shoulders carved with acanthus within channeled reserves of the uprights, the shaped armrests carved with acanthus and foliate clasps on fluted and acanthus-carved downswept supports, with drop-in seats upholstered in salmon-pink velvet, the serpentine seat rail on cabriole legs headed with acanthus scrolls teminating in scroll feet, the outswept tapering back legs on pad feet, the underside of the seat rail with ink inventory marks RTF, each numbered I and II respectively, and one bearing Apter-Fredericks label

With Apter-Fredericks, London.

This design of this remarkable and technically ambitious pair of armchairs, with their elaborate interlaced hooped splats, derives from Continental prototypes of the early 18th century. The form was introduced to England and popularized by the Huguenot ornamentalist William de la Cour's First Book of Ornament (1741). The equally fanciful designs of engraver and publisher Matthias Darly from his Second Book of Chairs (1751) achieved widespread popularity and played an influential role in the creation of the St. Martin's Lane style of the mid-18th century to which the present chairs belong. The emergence of neoclassicism saw these designs fall out of favour in the later part of the 1760s; however, similar patterns can still be found in Robert Manwaring's The Cabinet and Chair Maker's Real Friend and Companion (1765) and The Chair Maker's Guide (1766).