A Pair of Regency Polychrome-Painted Satinwood Spoon Back Chairs, Circa 1810

Sotheby's London, 12 June 2002, lot 19

Emily Eerdmans, Classic English Design and Antiques: Period Styles and Furniture, The Hyde Park Antiques Collection, New York 2006, p. 240

The sabre legs and distinctive curved backs of this attractive pair derives from contemporary French models of chairs and armchairs described as en gondole. A design for a chair with a similar back described as a 'Roman chair' appears in plate 1 of the London Chair Makers' and Carvers' Book of Prices (1808). A related pair of ebony-inlaid mahogany 'shell back' chairs were supplied in 1806 to Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baron Bradford, for Weston Park, Staffordshire by the Royal cabinetmakers Morel & Hughes (illustrated Phillis Rogers, 'A Regency Interior: the Remodelling of Weston Park,' Furniture History, vol. XXIII 1987, p. 32 fig. 4). Another similar group of chairs is recorded at Caledon House, County Tyrone (illustrated Ralph Edwards and Percy Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London 1954, vol. I p.307 fig. 262).