A Pair of George III Carved Mahogany Hall Stools Attributed to Thomas Chippendale, Circa 1765

Norman Adams, 6 July 1981;

Christie's London, 14 May 2003, lot 120;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

One stool C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev. ed., 1985, p. 56

The unusual design of these stools reflects the creative adaptation of styles based on the context of the commission as well as the fashions of the day. The seat evidently draws on Classical architecture in a way that is in keeping with the emergent taste for Neoclassicism, but this is counterbalanced with far more Gothic detail than is customary for pieces in this style. Indeed, the Gothic and the Neoclassical are often treated as styles that are almost mutually exclusive, yet here they are interwoven as befits the home of many stools in this model, the University of Oxford. There are twenty-six stools of this model at Christ Church College, but there are many others to be found in Brasenose College, the Divinity Schools and the Old Radcliffe Observatory.¹ The marriage of Oxford’s storied Gothic architecture and the learned study of the languages and cultures of Antiquity within the hallowed halls makes the combination of styles logical; there are few precedents in domestic furniture, and the designs for stools with curved and scrolled seats in Ince and Mayhew’s Universal System of Household Furniture are all in a more visibly Rococo manner and are even designated as “Lady’s Dressing Stools”.²

Payments to Chippendale confirm that his was the hand behind many stools of this Christ Church model. To quote in full, the bill of 21^st July 1764 records “Mr Chippendale’s Bill Stools for the Library” at '[£]38, 15[s], -[d]', and an additional charge of £18 6d to 'Saunders for Carriage of the Stools from London'.³ When discussing the unusual design of these stools, Christopher Gilbert notes that it is most likely that Chippendale 'refined an existing prototype' and that the design was not conceived by him.⁴ Two stools of this model are in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; one (W.5-1963) matches the design most closely while the other (W.85-1962) features the arms of the Fitch family in place of the rosette.

¹ One stool C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge 1985, p. 56.

² W. Ince and J. Mayhew, Authentic Georgian Furniture Designs: Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, Mineola NY, 1998 facsimile, pl.XXXIV.

³ C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, Leeds 1978, vol I, p.165

⁴ Ibid., p.165