A pair of George III polychrome-painted shield-back armchairs circa 1780

The design of these chairs closely relates to a design by George Hepplewhite illustrated in the first edition of The Cabinet-Maker and Upholster`s Guide, 1788, pl.9. This image shows a very similar shield back chair but with rounded legs and which he stipulated should be mahogany or japanned with linen or leather cushions. He  wrote further, referring to seat furniture, that a `new and very elegant fashion has arisen ... of finishing them with painted or japanned work, which gives a rich and splendid appearance to the minuter parts of the ornaments, which are generally thrown in by the painter. Several of these designs are particular adapted to this style, which allows a framework less massy than is requisite for mahogany; and by affording the prevailing colour to the furniture and light of the room, affords opportunity, by the variety of grounds which may be introduced, to make the whole accord in harmony, with a pleasing and striking effect to the eye'.  

At least two high quality firms were producing furniture of this type at the end of the 18th century. Gillows of London and Lancaster illustrated a chair of similar form in their Estimate Book and which is illustrated in L. Boynton's Gillow Furniture Designs, 1760-1800, Lindsay Boynton, 1995, pl.260 and dated about 1785/90. Chairs of this type are also associated with the firm of Seddon which specialised in the production of hand-painted furniture. A documented suite of armchairs by Seddon of related form to the present lot  which was commissioned around 1790 for Hauteville House, Guernsey is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, vol. 1, p.301, fig.241. A pair of chairs of similar form to the offered lot is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ( A31.87 1&2). A similar example in mahogany was sold Christie`s New York, 27 October 2006, lot 99.