A pair of Regency ormolu-mounted brass-inlaid ebony and oak side chairs, circa 1815, attributed to George Bullock

The present chairs were part of a suite of furniture which George Bullock reputedly supplied to Don Pedro de Souza e Holstein, 1^st Duke of Palmela (1781-1850). Palmela fought under Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular Wars and was one of Portugal's most important politicians and diplomats of the first half of the 19^th century. He was Ambassador to the Court of St. James during the period when he possibly commissioned this suite of furniture some of which included a footstool, window seat, sofa, three pelmets, two pairs of torchères, bookcase, mirror, pair of commodes and the present eighteen dining chairs, which were sold at Christie's London, June 25, 1987, lots 171-181. It appears that some or all of these pieces descended to the Visconde de Torrãa and sold from the Rua do Sacramento a Laga, 24 Lisbon, sold by Silva's on premises April 27-29, 1987. However, according to the V&A online archives, some of the furniture which was sold at Christie's may have come from another source: 'Correspondence in the green catalogue reveals that the torcheres and other pieces sold at Christie's did not belong to the Duke of Palmela but belonged to the van Zeller family of Portugal. Carlos van Zeller inherited the Bullock furniture in 1914 from his parents and married Maria de Lancastre, granddaughter of the Duke of Palmela's daughter, Teresa, and the Count of Alcacovas. The Visconde Torraro (Luis de Lancastre) inherited the furniture from Maria, his sister, and Carlos van Zeller' (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82134/torchere-candelabrum).

Palmela lived at the Portuguese Embassy, which was a great Georgian house at 74 Audley Street, until 1819 after he had been made Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and War, finally returning to Portugal in 1820 as he preferred London society. He was very close friends with William Beckford, the hugely wealthy novelist, art collector and creator of Fonthill Abbey and letters exist between the two describing Beckford's visits to Palmela when he was living in the dubious Thomas Hotel, in Berkeley Square in between Palmela's leaving for Portugal.

The present chairs incorporate a standard foliate border which is seen on many pieces of Bullock furniture and has been found on a pair of doors at Storrs Hall, supplied to John Bolton by the Gandy-Bullock partnership in 1809-1810. That these chairs are made of oak is also typical of Bullock's production at the time.