A George II Carved Mahogany Library Armchair, Circa 1755

Phillip's London, 18 June 1991, lot 75

The elegant armchair derives from designs for 'French Chairs' published in the first and second editions of Thomas Chippendale's Director (1754, 1755). It is of identical model and possibly the same example as a chair published in Herbert Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, London 1910, Vol. II, p.95 fig.93, described as one of a pair in the collection of A Beckford Bevan, Esq. (also illustrated in Herbert Cescinsky, English Furniture from Gothic to Sheraton, Grand Rapids 1929, p.280). An armchair of almost identical design but with a slightly bowed front seat rail and more arched crest rail was at Godmersham Park Kent, sold Christie's on the premises 6-9 June 1983, lot 165, and again Sotheby's New York, 23 October 1998, lot 339. A further example of this model is illustrated in Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, New York 1968, fig. 189.