A set of eight Anglo-Dutch walnut chairs, six circa 1720

For the six period chairs only

Probably Matthias Kerrison at Hoxne Hall (afterwards Oakley Hall) Eye, Suffolk;

Thence by descent to Lady Bateman, at Oakley Hall (one standing in the Entrance Hall in 1908), possibly sold with the Estate of the late Lady Bateman, Christie's, 10th July. 1919.

H. Avray Tipping, 'Oakley Park, Suffolk, A Seat of Dowager Baroness Bateman,' Country Life, 4 January 1908, vol XXII, pp.18-26.

After the ascent of the Elector of Hanover to the English throne in 1714 as George I, the influence of European craftsmen again became apparent both in the design and construction of English furniture. Certain features of the construction of the present chairs indicate that they were likely made in England by an émigré furniture-maker; the subtly curved backs with moulded edges are definitely closer to the design of other English chairs of this period than those on the Continent. The marquetry decoration is unusual for English furniture of this period, since it was more common earlier in the century under the Dutch influence of William and Mary. The actual construction of the chairs can be considered typically English, although within the seatrails, the pegs have been left uncut in the Continental way – an English cabinet-maker normally cut them flush with the frame.

The most interesting feature of the design of the present chairs is the small boot or shoe that forms the foot of the front cabriole legs. This unusual feature rarely appears on English chairs or those of Continental origin, although another set of almost identical form, certainly by the same craftsmen, was in the collection of C. Assheton Smith and was recorded in Percy Macquoid's Age of Walnut.¹ A tripod table in the V&A attributed to Frederick Hintz, another émigré working in England, also features ‘shoe’ feet, though these are of a more anthropomorphic design that is whimsically modelled on fashionable buckled shoes of the mid-eighteenth century (W.3-1965).

The chairs seem to have been part of a set of twenty-four, twelve of which were acquired by Lord Leverhulme at the sale of the contents of Oakley Hall, Eye, Suffolk on the 10th July 1919. The Leverhulme examples were then sold in the 2001 Thornton Manor sale by Sotheby's and also had Roman numerals to their the underside. 



The 1^st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), one of Victorian England’s most important collectors of fine and decorative art, started his life as William Lever, the son of a Lancashire grocer. After competently growing the family business, he became immensely successful with his company Sunlight Soap. With Victorian Britain becoming increasingly polluted, Leverhulme harnessed the increasing demand for cleaning products by being the first to efficiently mass-produce soap using vegetable oil. As well as putting his fortune towards philanthropy, he was a major art collector, and often used paintings in the advertising for Sunlight Soap.² Many of the gems of his collection are still on display the Lady Lever Art Gallery today, while many others were sold at Sotheby’s in June 2001 – bidding at these auctions reached over £9m, setting the record for a house sale at the time.³

¹ Percy Macquoid, The Age of Walnut, 1909, p.197, fig.181.

² For examples, see Sam Bytheway, ‘The art of advertising’, liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Available at: <https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/art-of-advertising> [accessed 22^nd March 2024]

³ ‘Treasure sale breaks UK auction record’, BBC News, 28^th June 2001. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1411892.stm> [accessed 22^nd March 2024]