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

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.