The Vision of Aso O. Tavitian | The Townhouse
The Vision of Aso O. Tavitian | The Townhouse
A Late George III Mahogany Metamorphic Library Armchair, Circa 1810
No reserve
Estimate
6,000 - 10,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
the arched top rail above a horizontal splat and scrolled reeded arms terminating in paterae, with a caned seat and reeded sabre legs, the back unfolding on a hinge to reveal four steps lined with later green leather, with a brass plaque on each side inscribed Weeks's Pattern at his Museum. Titchbourne St't Hay Market 139
height 36 in.; width 22 in.; depth 23 in.
91.4 cm; 55.9 cm; 58.4 cm
Norman Adams Ltd., London;
E. L. Windsor, Esq.;
Christie's London, 7 July 1988, lot 72;
Private Collection;
Christie's London, 14 June 2001, lot 104;
Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.
In 1797 the 'perfumer and Machinist' Thomas Weeks leased a space at 3-4 Titchborne Street, off the north end of Haymarket behind what is now Piccadilly Circus, to create a museum of mechanical objects in a similar spirit to the goldsmith and inventor James Cox's Spring Gardens Museum of automata, clocks and jewellery of twenty years earlier. The Picture of London for 1802 provides a preliminary description of the gallery prior to the official opening: The grand room, which is 107 feet long, and 30 feet high, is covered entirely with blue satin, and contains a variety of figures, which exhibit the effects of mechanism in an astonishing manner. The architecture is by Wyatt; the painting on the ceiling is by Rebecca and Singleton. Among the exhibited objects were 'two temples...nearly seven feet high, supported by sixteen elephants, embellished with seventeen hundred pieces of jewellery' as well as mechanical models of a bird of paradise and a tarantula spider.
You May Also Like
