A pair of George III Armorial-decorated Mahogany Hall Chairs attributed to Ince and Mayhew, possibly carved by Sefferin Alken, Circa 1775

Almost certainly commissioned by George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton (d. 1836) for Peper Harow, Surrey, and by descent to;

Lady Moyra Loyd, née Brodrick, daughter of the 1st Earl of Midleton and by descent;

The Property of a Family Trust; Christie's London, 21 April 1994, lots 304-306;

With Jonathan Harris, London;

A Collection from a New York Townhouse; Christie's New York, 15 April 2005, lot 220 and 221;

An Adventurous Spirit, Christie’s London, 13 December 2018, lot 91.

H. A. Tipping, 'Peper Harow, Surrey', Country Life, 26 December 1925, p. 1005, fig. 5 (illustrated in situ in the Hall).

H. A. Tipping, English Homes, Period VI, vol. I, p. 279, fig. 439 (illustrated in situ in the Hall).

C. Hussey, English Country Houses, Mid-Georgian 1760-1800, London 1956, p. 111, fig. 205 (illustrated in situ in the Hall).

J. Harris, Sir William Chambers, London 1970, pl. 88 (illustrated in situ in the Hall).

H. Roberts and C. Cator, Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, London 2022, pp.253-4, fig. 300.

These hall chairs originally formed part of a set of eight chairs at the seat of the Viscounts Midleton at Peper Harow, Surrey. In the inventory for the mansion taken in 1851 by Farebrother, Clark & Lye of London the chairs were recorded as; ‘A Pair of Mahogany Hall Chairs with crest emblazoned on panels’ situated in the ‘Inner Hall’ and ‘6 Mahogany Hall Chairs with Crest emblazoned on white panels’ are listed in the ‘Entrance Hall and Portico’. In 1925, and again in 1956, part of the set was photographed by Country Life in the hall (Tipping, op. cit.; Hussey, op. cit.). 

George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton (1754-1836) inherited the title and English and Irish estates upon the death of his father in 1765 when just eleven years old. His father, George Brodrick, 3rd Viscount Midleton (1730-65) had, just five months before his death, commissioned the renowned Scottish-Swedish architect, William Chambers (1723-96) to build a new house at Peper Harow. Despite the new Viscount’s minority, the works progressed under the supervision of his mother, Albinia, and were completed following his coming of age in 1775 with the furnishing finalised in 1777 remaining under Chambers’s supervision despite his ascendancy to Comptroller of the King's Works from 1769–1782.

It is no coincidence that Chambers should turn to his favoured furniture makers, advocates of neo-classicism, the preeminent London firm of John Mayhew (1736-1811) and William Ince (1737-1834). The Peper Harow chairs can be compared to a set of eight virtually identical painted chairs at Broadlands, Hampshire (H. Roberts, ‘The Ince and Mayhew Connection: Furniture at Broadlands, Hampshire – I’, Country Life, 29 January 1981, p. 289, fig. 6 and H. Roberts and C. Cator op.cit., fig 299). Although no furniture bills exist for Broadlands, they form part of a collection of furniture identified as by Mayhew and Ince, and were in the Great Hall from at least 1786, when they were listed in a household inventory (ibid., p. 288).

These two sets share the distinctive roundel and fluted seat-rail design. Mayhew and Ince had collaborated with Chambers on various projects, including the refurbishment carried out for the 4th Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace from the late 1760s. The chairs may have been executed by the specialist carver, Sefferin Alken as there are significant payments from Chambers to Alken amounting to £294 14s.9d. Alken is also recorded as having worked with Chambers at Blenheim, and on the astonishing medal cabinet supplied to the 1st Earl of Charlemont for Charlemont House, Dublin. He worked extensively with many of London's top cabinet-making firms, often providing furniture to the designs of Robert Adam. He was employed for the specialist carving on chairs, similarly fluted, supplied by John Cobb at Croome Court in 1765 to Adam's designs. In Alken's collaboration with Cobb, his work was accounted for as part of Cobb's invoice ('carving all the arms and front feet, all the rest carved by Mr. Alken', see C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and other Neo-Classical Furniture, 1966, fig. 58). Chambers, who acclaimed himself to be 'really a Very pretty Connoisseur in furniture', exercised very close supervision in the matters of the decorative arts, and frequently acted as paymaster on his projects which may account for the direct payment to Alken at Peper Harow even with the participation of Mayhew and Ince.

A further similar set of four mahogany arm chairs with comparable fluted oval back and fluted seat rail with roundel corners was supplied in c.1782 to Richard Myddelton (1726-1795), possibly originally for his London house and now at Chirk Castle, Wrexham (Roberts and Cator, p.212 and p. 356, fig. 301).