A PAIR OF GEORGE II STYLE GILT-GESSO SIDE CHAIRS circa 1900

one drop-in seat stamped VIII to the inside rail and with penciled inscription Robinson, Dudley House  to the outside of the frame; the seat stamped VI to the seat frame.

Possibly commissioned by William Ward, 1^st Earl of Dudley (d. 1885), or his son William Humble Ward, 2^nd Earl of Dudley, as part of a larger set of chairs for the Dining Room, Dudley House, Park Lane, London

Joseph B. Robinson, Dudley House, Park Lane, London

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, July 4 1997, lot 32

Overall good restored condition; the first with the drop-in seat stamped VIII to the inside rail and VI to the seat frame; cresting rail with rubbing and wear now showing gesso layer with some minor chips and losses; repaired crack to base of splat; age crack to back of left stile at join with cresting rail; age crack to lower part of back of right stile; the back of splat re-gilt; some repaired age cracks to seat rails at joins with front legs; the lion masks and paw feet with later over-gilding; the apron and front legs with small chips to carving; numerous chips to gesso and gilding especially to feet and cresting rail; the matching chair with wear to gilding and showing the gesso layer especially to the cresting rail; lion masks and paw feet with later over-gilding; chips to carving of apron and to carving overall; chips and losses to gilding overall; the underside of the back seat rail stamped 08649; each formally fitted with casters.
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.

The present chairs belong to a large suite of seat furniture which includes identical chairs, together with matching settees, stools and a pair of side tables.  Now in various private collections, the group, until William Reider published an article titled  'A Gilt Gesso Set of Furniture Traditionally from Stowe', in The Journal of The Furniture History Society, Volume XIV, 1978, had become 'entrenched in the  literature as from Stowe and by James Moore' (op. cit. p. 9).  Also, it seems that it was originally assumed that the suite as a whole dated from the 18^th century, but it is now clear, that as with the present lot, the majority of the chairs at least were actually made in the late 19^th century.

The major contents of Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, the ducal mansion of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, were dispersed in a major sale in 1848, occasioned by the financial difficulties of Richard Grenville, the second Duke. Unfortunately, both the entries found in 'Inventory of the Household Furniture &c at Stowe House' taken in 1839, or the descriptions in the 1848 sale catalogue, are insufficiently detailed to allow a positive identification to be made with the suite as a whole which, according to Rieder. included at least thirty-five pieces.

Of these, there are a number of chairs recorded identical to the present examples which are now in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen including a set of six in the Queen's Audience Room at Windsor Castle which was sold at Christie's in London in May 1939 from the Collection of William Randolph Hearst, being described as 'From the Collection of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Stowe House', and a further twenty-two chairs, twenty-one being in the Queen's Drawing Room and Presence Chamber, and another in a store-room. These were acquired from Sotheby's in London in two sales, twelve being sold on January 31, 1964, and ten on July 2 1965, two of these  being described as circa 1725, 'the rest later'.  They were sold by the descendants of the daughter of the South African mining magnate Sir Joseph P. Robinson who had almost certainly acquired them during his tenancy of Dudley House, Park Lane in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

Dudley House was the London residence of Lord Ward, Ist Earl of Dudley, being subsequently leased by his son, the 2^nd Earl of Dudley in 1895 to Sir Joseph P. Robinson. Presumably Sir Joseph acquired twelve of the chairs during this tenancy, these appearing in a photograph taken in 1890 of the Dining Room at the time of the second Earl, and it is of course possible that the other ten chairs were also at Dudley House at that time, but in another room.  It is of note that one of the present chairs bears a faint pencil inscription Robinson, Dudley House on the frame of the drop-in seat, and are also covered in the identical cut velvet as shown on the twenty-two chairs sold at Sotheby's in 1964 and 1965, confirming that they were originally part of the Dudley House suite.

Curiously, although the present chairs seem to be of identical timber and construction and have the same gilding, the carving of the gesso decoration seems to be by a different hand possibly indicating that they were made in the same workshop but at different times. One of the chairs is stamped with the numerals and originally had a stenciled inscription J. HINDLEY  & SONS, 134 OXFORD St., LONDON.  This firm is recorded in The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers at 154 Oxford Street, circa 1820-1830, although a number of their order and account books preserved in the archives of the City of Westminster are dated from 1766 to 1898. In a late 19^th century advertisement they describe themselves as CABINET-MAKERS, PARQUET MANUFACTURERS, PAINTERS-DECORATORS-UPHOLSTERERS and UNDERTAKERS.

Lord Ward is recorded as purchasing at the Stowe sale, lot 1338, A set of four chairs, with carved backs and legs, with lions' masks and feet, the seats covered with crimson Utrecht velvet, which, in a priced and annotated catalogue published after the sale by Henry Ramsey Forster, it was noted that they had been 'presented to the Duke of Buckingham by Mr. W. Selby Lowndes'.  Of the twenty-two chairs with the Dudley House provenance now in the Royal Collection, Rieder observes that 'two or three appear to be authentic' (op. cit. p. 8), which neither proves nor disproves that they are the ones originally purchased from Stowe, and which were presumably subsequently copied by Lord Ward.  It is interesting to note that another six identical chairs are recorded, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown, although they might possibly be those also in the Royal Collection and which were formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst. These were in the collection of Sir Lionel Phillips, Bart., and were sold at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, May 6, 1918, lot 748. Sir Lionel was a contemporary of Sir Joseph Robinson and was also a South African mining magnate.

Apart from the chairs, two settees are also in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, and although formerly in the Collection of William Randolph Hearst also lack a secure provenance, and another one in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which was formerly in the Collection of Sir Everard Pauncefort Duncombe of Great Brickhill Manor, Bucks.  His predecessor Sir Philip Pauncefort Duncombe, the 1st Baronet (1818-1890), is recorded as a purchaser at the Stowe Sale, although it cannot be identified as coming from that sale. The Metropolitan Museum's collection also includes a stool, formerly in the Mulliner Collection, similarly without an earlier provenance, although another pair of stools, now at Parham Park, was originally in the Collection of Col. W. Selby Lowndes of Whaddon Hall, Bucks., as was a pair of tables now in a private American collection.  W. Selby Lowndes is also recorded as a purchaser at the Stowe sale, but again cannot be identified.  All of these pieces appear to date from the 18th century, although the carved gesso decoration to the tops of the tables is later.

See:

William Rieder, 'A Gilt Gesso Set of Furniture Traditionally from Stowe', The Journal of the Furniture History Society, vol. XIV, 1978, pl. 21

Macquoid and Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1953, vo. I., p. 270, fig. 138