A Regency Gilt and Patinated Bronze Side Chair Circa 1810

the scrollwork backrest centered by a gilt-bronze monogram PC below a crown and within an acanthus leaf wreath, the webbed leather strapwork seat above a reeded seat rail marked at the corners by palmettes, raised on scrolling legs ending in paw feet topped by acanthus leaves.

Although the design of this chair can be related to those in such pattern books such as George Smith (1808) and P. & M. A. Nicholson (1826), and in Rudolph Ackermann’s The Repository of Arts (1809 – 1828), its method of construction in patinated bronze and polished brass appears to be unprecedented. Cast iron chairs of the 1830s are recorded (see George Himmelheber, Cast Iron Furniture, 1996, figs. 60-66), which were made in various Prussian and continental foundries, but the present example is far more sophisticated and with a more accomplished construction than these.