An Important Pair of George II Armchairs Attributed to William and Richard Gomm circa 1755

each cartouche-shaped a chassis upholstered backrest within a pierced foliate acanthus- and rocaille-carved conforming frame, the acanthus-scrolled handholds on S-scrolled acanthus-carved armrest supports above a serpentine-fronted drop-in seat within a conforming pierced foliate-scrolled acanthus and rocaille-carved apron, raised on acanthus-carved cabriole legs terminating in acanthus-scrolled feet;  one chair stamped AIII and III to the inside of the front rail, and stamped AIII to the frame of the drop-in seat; the other chair stamped AII and VIIII to the inside of the front rail and stamped AII and chalked V4795 to the frame of the drop-in seat. Originally fitted with casters.  Repairs.

Almost certainly originally part of a suite of seat furniture, which included at least seven other arm chairs which were either commissioned by either Francis Palmer of Castle Lacken, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Echlin, 2^nd Bt. (d. 1757), purchasing in 1780 Rush House which they re-named Kenure Park.  Rush House was Elizabeth's ancestral home and had been lost by her first cousin Sir Henry Echlin 3^rd Bt. through gambling debts, or by Sir Roger Palmer, 1^st Bt. of Castlelackan, Co. Mayo and M. P. for Jamestown and later Portarlington, who inherited the Kenure estate on the death of his first cousin Robert Palmer in 1811

The New York Public Library, New York

The date at which the present chairs possibly left Kenure Park is unknown, as is the history of another pair of chairs which was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, November 9, 1956, lot 301, the catalogue indicating that they had been purchased by the Countess Constantini from  French & Company, New York.

Three chairs from the suite passed by descent at Kenure Park to Roderick George Fenwick-Palmer, C. B. E. (d.1968), and were consequently sold by the Trustees of the Palmer Estate at Kenure Park by James H. North, Dublin, 21-24 September 1964, lot 334. One of these is now in a private collection, and the pair was with Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd., London, 1968, and subsequently in the collection of Gerald Hochschild, being sold by him, Sotheby's, London, November 9, 1978, lot 43

These were subsequently sold, Christie's, New York, 'The Property of a Lady', October 27, 2006, lot 110.

One of the chairs sold at the Kenure Park sale in September 1964 was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England , May 16 – September 30, 1984, no. L61, p. 182

The carving and proportions of the chairs are of very high quality; each chair has been stripped of its original gesso and gilding and has been stained and varnished, and now in a slightly distressed condition. Chair 'AIII' with two later screws to the stiles to hold in the backrest; the left stile with old repaired split at juncture with screw; the back right foot with old repaired break. Chair 'AII' with old repaired breaks to tops of front legs at joins with the seat rails; the front left leg with extensive old worm damage and slightly smaller than the other legs, possibly an old replacement. Both chairs with chips, losses and replacements to extremities of carving and with old scratches, scuffs and bruises; areas of old worm damage in places; areas of old glue to legs at joins with seat rails; the undersides of the feet, originally hollowed out for casters, have been filled in.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The form and detail of the present chairs is closely related to a drawing which is included in a group of three surviving manuscript books in the Collection of The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware, the first volume containing manuscript designs for furniture, rooms, and ornamental designs, some of which are signed by Willliam Gomm and dated July, August, and November 18, 1761.  Further evidence of his ownership of the books is evidenced by an example of multiplication possibly addressed to his fifteen year old son William with the measurements of his room at Clerkenwell Close with the request as to 'how many feet of carpeting would cover it'.  The design, which is annotated A, is pasted into the book with four other drawings in the rococo style, B being for a pier mirror, C for a girandoles, D  for another pier mirror, and E  a pier table, naturalistically carved in the form of a tree; a table based on this design, and subsequently shown to have had a Gomm family provenance was sold at Sotheby's sale of the contents of Groombridge Place, the estate of Walton Mountain, September, 15-16, 1992, lot 49.

William Gomm (c. 1698-1780), was the son of a yeoman farmer in Chinnor, and was apprenticed in 1713 to Hugh Maskall of London, a member of the Leathersellers' Company, joining this on the completion of his apprenticeship and subsequently being made free of the Upholders' Company in 1770.  First established at Peterborough Court, Smithfield, in 1725, he then moved to Newcastle House, Clerkenwell Court, building a double range of workshops over the surviving medieval nun's hall.  By 1756 he had taken his eldest son Richard (born c. 1729) into the business, the partnership continuing until bankruptcy occurred in 1776, although it was noted at that time that Richard 'filed by faults not his own'.  It is interesting to note that at some time in the 1730s William became associated with the German cabinet-maker Abraham Roentgen; Roentgen family memoirs mention him 'working with a number of  skilled furniture makers in London including one named as 'gern', at Newcastle House, presumably Gomm (Beard and Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, 1986, pp. 349-350).

Gomm's known commissions include supplying various items of furniture to Richard Hoare of Barn Elms, J. Buller of Morval, Cornwall, the Banking premises of Glyn, Halifax and Co., of Birchin Lane, London and Richard Weddell of Pall Mall, London, the father of William Weddell of Newby Hall Yorkshire; the majority of these pieces appear to be of a 'domestic' nature, either of walnut or mahogany.  The most extensive commission carried out by the partnership appears to be that carried out for the 5^th Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Park in 1763, and included '183 assorted chairs, together with tables, dressing tables, clothes presses, close stools, a chest on chest, shaving table, commode dressing table, Pembroke table and a sideboard' (Beard and Gilbert, op. cit. )  Many of these survived at Stoneleigh until dispersed in the 1980s, all of them being again of a 'domestic' nature.  Apart from the present chairs, the most ambitious pieces of furniture which have been attributed to Gomm are the aforementioned table from Groombridge Place, and an elaborately carved altar table, the apron centered by a cherub's head made for the chapel at Stoneleigh.

The present chairs are designed in the full rococo taste of the late 1750s and 1760s, chairs of a similar form being illustrated in contemporary pattern books such as Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, published in three editions between 1754 and 1763, and The Universal System of Household Furniture, published in 1762 by William Ince and John Mayhew, where they are described as French Chairs.  Gomm's manuscript design and that of the present chairs is particularly notable for its lightness, the pierced elements of the carving providing a serious challenge to the chair-maker to provide sufficient strength to the frame overall. This is certainly not indicated either in the published designs of Chippendale or Ince and Mayhew, although a manuscript design by Matthias Lock which is closely related to a surviving chair which appears in various portraits by the painter Richard Cosway, also has these features.  Unfortunately the present chairs have at some time lost their original burnished gilt-gesso decoration revealing the original pine construction which has been darkened with stain.

Kenure Park, Rush, Co. Dublin, was originally built in 1703 for the Dukes of Ormonde, subsequently becoming the property of Sir Henry Echlin, the 3^rd Bt. After he lost the estate through bankruptcy, it was purchased by the daughter of the 2^nd Baronet and her husband Francis Palmer.  It then descended in the Palmer family until 1964 when Colonel R. H. Fenwick-Palmer sold the contents, the house and estate being sold to the Irish Land Commissioners.  Unfortunately the house, which had fallen into severe decay, was demolished in 1978, the only part now remaining being the imposing portico by Papworth erected in the 1840s.  The few surviving photographs of the interiors of the house indicate that a number of rooms still retrained their fine rococo plasterwork probably by Robert West of Dublin and carved woodwork which remained after an extensive fire in 1827 only to be subsequently destroyed in 1978.

It is not known when the present chairs left the house, only three chairs from the suite being sold at the auction of the contents of the house in 1964, at which time an unusual ormolu-mounted lacquered commode by Pierre Langlois, and also a superb George II parcel-gilt padouk cabinet-on-stand attributed to Thomas Chippendale were also sold.  In the Chinese manner with rococo decoration, this was recently sold at Christie's, London, June 18, 2008, lot 8.

See:

E. T. Joy, The Country Life Book of Chairs, London, 1967, pp. 50-53, figs. 49 & 50

John Hardy, 'The Discovery of Cosway's Chair', Country Life, March 15, 1973, pp. 265-267, gig. 4, 5

L. Boynton, 'William and Richard Gomm', The Burlington Magazine, June 1980, pp. 395-400, fig. 25