A George III Gothic Revival mahogany side chair, circa 1760

The Hon. Daisy Fellowes, Donnington Grove, Berkshire;
Sotheby's London, September 29, 1995, lot 39;
Christie's London, November 19, 2015, lot 542 (GBP 5,625)

Moss Harris & Sons, The English Chair, London, 1948, p. 137, pl. LXVB.
Chistopher Hussey, ‘Donnington Grove, Berkshire’, Country Life, September 25, 1958, p. 656, fig. 6.

Nicely upholstered. Fun design; ready to place. Corners blocked. Some minor worm damage to the rails. Small chips to the elements on apron. Restorations to the back.
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 revival of the Gothic style in England is often seen as a nineteenth century phenomena; however, the eighteenth century was just as fascinated with the medieval past, as seen in Chippendale's Gothic designs or Horace Walpole's famous Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. The present chair is a unique example of how cabinetmakers appropriated Gothic elements and reworked them to their own designs. Another chair with a somewhat similar steeple back but without the fretwork carving was supplied for Stonor Park, Buckinghamshire and is illustrated in Ralph Edwards, Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964, p. 149, p. 125. Another similar suite is the Gothic banqueting chairs from Strawberry Hill, which were designed by Horace Walpole and Richard Bentley and executed by the cabinetmaker William Hallett. The suite is visible in a watercolor from 1788 by John Carter illustrated in J. Mordaunt Crook, ‘Strawberry Hill Revisited – I', Country Life, June 7, 1973, p. 1599, fig. 3. A pair of related chairs from the the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle were sold Christie’s London, June 4, 2009, lot 137. Another set of seven Gothic armchairs from the collection of the Earls of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, were sold Maple & Co., April 15, 1947, lot 639.

Paris-born Daisy Fellowes (1890-1962), heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune and a notable society hostess and style icon, married Winston Churchill's cousin the Hon. Reginald Fellowes in 1919. In 1940 they acquired Donnington Grove, Berkshire, a 1763 house built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style. Interiors of the house were illustrated in Country Life in 1958.