A GEORGE II MAHOGANY MASTER'S ARMCHAIR, CIRCA 1750

Christie's New York, 30 April 1997, lot 128

Following a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, civic corporations, livery companies, masonic lodges and private societies and clubs in Georgian England produced richly decorated large-scale ceremonial armchairs for use by their presidents or governing officials. Like the offered lot they often included a cartouche for the display of the organisation's coat of arms or emblems. The iconography of deer and hounds in the carved decoration suggests this chair may have been intended for use by the Master of Ceremonies of a hunt club.

Animal head terminals were frequently encountered, such as the lion's heads on the armrests of the master's chair of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Carvers in the City of London, supplied by the cabinetmaker Edward Newman in 1754 (Victoria & Albert Museum, London; ill. in C. Graham, Ceremonial and Commemorative Chairs in Great Britain, 1994, p.65 pl.84). The custom of reserving an elaborate and over-sized seat for the specific use of the person presiding over a meeting or celebration would give rise to the term 'chairman'.