A pair of black-painted 'loop' chairs by Frances Elkins circa 1934

Losses, later painted.

Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Wheeler, Lake Forest, Illinois

Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Gedge, Lake Forest, Illinois, acquired from the above

Stephen M. Salny, Frances Elkins Interior Design, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, pp. 104-5

Shax Riegler, 'The it chair', The Magazine Antiques¸ January 2009, vol. CLXXV, No. 1, pp. 146-151, fig. 4

Overall good restored condition; redecorated; the first with old repaired breaks to armrest supports with inpainting; infilling and inpainting to small section of backrest; inpainted repair to right armrest at join with backrest; the other with old repaired break to armrest supports with inpainting; separation between two oval loops to backrest probably due to shrinkage; old repaired break to top cresting rail at join with right stile, now with inpainting; slight separation at join of front right leg with right seat rail; overall with small chips, losses and scratches to painted surface with areas of inpainting.
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.

Stephen M. Salny's groundbreaking monograph Frances Elkins Interior Design, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, has refocused interest in this extremely talented designer originally from Wisconsin whose work with her brother, the well-know architect, David Adler, did much to transform American interior decoration in the second quarter of the 20th century.  In a house designed by her brother, Elkins created these 'loop chairs' in 1934 for the living room of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Wheeler, Lake Forest, Illinois, where they were photographed in situ around a card table; see Salny, op. cit., pp. 104-105.  The four chairs were bought by Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Gedge, neighbors of the Wheelers in Lake Forest, from whose collection they are being sold.

The design for the chairs comes from a set of seven George III japanned chairs (one armchairs and six side chairs) once in the collection of the industrialist Frank Green, Esq., and illustrated by Percy Macquoid in A History of English Furniture, 1904-08, who described them as 'more ingenious than beautiful.'; see Shax Riegler, 'The it chair', The Magazine Antiques¸ January 2009, vol. CLXXV, No. 1, pp. 146-151, fig. 4.  The set of chairs then entered the collection of Edward Burgess Hudson, founder of the English magazine Country Life, where two chairs where photographed in his drawing room at 15 Queen Anne's Gate, London, in the 1920s, op. cit., fig. 2.   They were then sold in the 1930s to Ronald and Marietta Peabody Tree, whose house, Ditchely Park, Oxfordshire, was designed in the 1720s by the architect James Gibbs for George Lee, the 2nd Earl of Lichfield, and where the armchair is seen in an interior watercolor of the writing room  by Alexandre Sérébriakoff.   The chairs were sold by Mrs. Tree in these rooms, October 8-9, 1976, lot 312 (illustrated on the cover of the sale catalogue).  An armchair and side chair from the set are illustrated, Lanto Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1991, p. 69, and two side chairs, Lanto Synge, Mallett Millenium: Fine Antique Furniture and Works of Art, Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1999, col. pl. 66.

For further discussion of Frances Elkins and 'loop' chairs, please see:

www.emilyevanseerdmans.blogspot.com

www.boriesandshearron.com