A pair of Regency ebonized and parcel-gilt arm chairs attributed to Morel and Hughes circa 1810

These armchairs in the French neoclassical manner were almost certainly executed by the firm of Morel and Hughes.  The use of the ram's-head terminals relates especially to two similar suites of furniture: the first supplied to the 1^st Earl of Bradford for Weston Park between 1806-1807; and the second supplied to either the 13th Earl of Clanricarde (d. 1808), or to his son the 1^st Marquess of Clanricarde (d. 1874).  The Bradford suite is recorded in the Weston Park bills submitted by Morel and Hughes to the 1^st Earl as '6 Elbow Chairs richly finished with carved ram's heads...' and '2 Bergeres richly carved & finished to suit the above in each respect...'  The chairs cost £69 6 and each bergère cost £13 10 (£27 total); see Phillis Rogers, 'A Regency Interior: The Remodeling of Weston Park', Furniture History Society, 1987, pp. 14, 21, figs. 7 and 8.  It is interesting to note that Thomas Hope makes use of the ram's-head terminals in two drawings in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807.  The first is of an armchair pl. XXII, on which a settee from Hope's house at Deepdene is based; see David Watkin and Philip Hewat-Jaboor, ed. Thomas Hope Regency Designer, New Haven, 2008, pp. 402-403, no. 81. The other is of a bedstead nos. 5 and 6; and plate XXIX, no. 3.

The Clanricarde chairs were commissioned by either the 13^th Earl or the 1^st Marquess and descended to the Earls of Harewood through the 2^nd Marquess of Clanicarde to the 6^th Earl of Harewood, eventually situated at Chesterfield House and illustrated in H. Avray Tipping, 'Chesterfield House, Mayfair', Country Life, Feb. 25^th 1922, p. 240 and in Clifford Musgrave, Regency Furniture 1800-1830, London, 1961, fig. 41b.  Whilst the Harewoods inherited this suite of furniture, they themselves had been patrons of Morel and Hughes, who supplied a quantity of furniture for Harewood House in London around 1809 at the same time the Clanricarde suite was made.  An almost identical pair of chairs sold at Christie's, London, July 6, 1989, lot 49; another pair was sold at Sotheby's, London, July 8, 1994, lot 154.

The firm of Morel and Hughes was established in 1805 by the partnership of two successful cabinet makers Nicholas Morel and Robert Hughes, and located at 13 Great Marlborough Street, London.  Morel was probably of French extraction and had particularly strong ties to the group of Anglo-French craftsmen centered on the architect Henry Holland and the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre.  Under Holland's direction he worked on the decoration of Carlton House, official London residence of the Prince of Wales, also supplying furnishings for the Prince's hunting box at The Grange, Hampshire.  Morel and Hughes continued to supply furniture for the Prince of Wales, later George IV, as well as for many other nobles such as The Dukes of Buccleuch, Northumberland, Bedford and the Earl of Mansfiled.  The partnership of Morel and Hughes ended by 1827 at which point Morel went into partnership with George Seddon.