View full screen - View 1 of Lot 162. A set of six George II walnut side chairs, circa 1730.

Property from the Berkeley Collection at Spetchley Park

A set of six George II walnut side chairs, circa 1730

Lot Closed

January 18, 04:41 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 8,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Berkeley Collection at Spetchley Park

A set of six George II walnut side chairs, circa 1730


the drop-in seats covered in associated embossed leather

Probably acquired by Thomas Berkeley of Clytha (d.1756).
Inventory [...] Spetchley Park, Worcester, 1949 : '[probably] A pair of Queen Anne walnut spoon back chairs with solid shaped splats, trap seats in painted leather, on cabriole legs, carved with a shell on the knees and pad feet' on the Staircase Gallery.
This rare set of carved walnut side chairs, with shaped 'banister' back splats and rounded 'compass' seats, are typical of English chair design of the 1730s. The scallop shell carved cabriole legs - a reference to the Roman goddess Venus - soon became a ubiquitous motif of neo-Palladian iconography. Adam Bowett suggests the shell would have been a natural progression for carvers and joiners who, in the 1720s, had been employing leafy scrolls or feathered plumes to the heads of chair legs. For related examples, see those illustrated Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, China, 2009, pp. 160-181.