A George III Carved Mahogany Open Armchair Attributed to John Linnell, Circa 1770

Hotspur Ltd., London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 20 March 2006.

This grand ‘Master’s’ chair can confidently be attributed to the workshop of John Linnell (1729-1796) based on the design and the quality of execution. The Linnells were prominent British cabinet-makers and furniture designers during the 18th century, with commissions for notable country houses including the Dukes of Beaufort for Badminton House, Sir Robert Child for Osterley Park and the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle. John Linnell, son of furniture maker William Linnell, was educated in design at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy. After his father’s death in 1763, he took charge of the family firm, working closely with renowned architects like Robert Adam.  

The current chair perfectly demonstrates the transition from the Rococo to the Neoclassical style. It draws heavily on the fashionable Louis XVI style popularized by French designers like Jean-Charles Delafosse in the 1760s and 1770s, introducing its typical entrelac, anthemia and bell-flower motifs, and combines it with the cabriole leg and paw foot of an earlier period. The chair also displays a leitmotif of Linnell’s designs, the ball arm terminals embraced by leaves, a motif frequently used by John Linnell and documented in his drawings held in The Victoria and Albert Museum, London and reproduced in H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London 1980, vol. II, fig. 87. Such innovative designs established his firm as a rival to other leading furniture makers of the time, including Thomas Chippendale, Ince & Mayhew, and John Cobb. 

Following a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, civic corporations, livery companies, masonic lodges and private societies and clubs in Georgian England produced richly decorated large-scale ceremonial armchairs for use by their presidents or governing officials. Like the offered lot they often included a cartouche for the display of the organisation's coat of arms or emblems. The offered chair would likely have been the main chair used by the Master of a masonic lodge and as such the splat is carved with appropriate masonic iconography: the two pillars represent the pillars of Solomon's Temple and are crowned by globes symbolising creation and flanked on the outside by open books expressing sacred texts or laws. The sun and moon signify night and day and the five-pointed star the five liberal arts, with a set square and compass evoking the need to set appropriate limits and the proper balance between different values. The custom of reserving an elaborate and over-sized seat for the specific use of the person presiding over a meeting or celebration would give rise to the term 'chairman'. Similar eighteenth century chairs are illustrated in C. Graham, Ceremonial and Commemorative Chairs in Great Britain, 1994.