A pair of George III giltwood armchairs, circa 1770, possibly by John Linnell

The Dukes of Argyll at Inverary Castle, Argyll;

Phillips London, Important English Furniture [etc.], 42 Berkeley Square, London, former property of Polly Peck International, 19 February 1991, lots 132 and 133.

The impactful 1974 catalogue The Destruction of the Country House contains a saddeningly extensive list of now-lost historic houses, many of which are annotated with a little "F" for "Destroyed by fire".¹ Not just buildings but their contents too, often including beautiful pieces from the golden age of English furniture, have been lost to the ages for this reason: this tragedy is distilled by Henry James at the close of The Spoils of Poynton, when a station-master informs us that a "rotten chimley [sic] or one of them [sic] portable lamps set down in the wrong place"² was the trivial cause of a devastating fire that was now destroying Poynton and its beloved collection of art and antiques. These chairs are six of what appear to be only ten examples that survived such a fire at Inveraray Castle on Bonfire Night in 1975: a photograph of the rescued furniture includes one of these chairs with their distinctive re-entrant corners,³ but it is sad to think of how many others from this original and elegant suite did not survive the blaze.

This suite of chairs is first documented at Inveraray Castle, the Neo-Gothic seat of the Dukes of Argyll, in a Country Life article of 1927.⁴ This shoot, the first time the house had been profiled in this way, shows eight examples of this model around the table in the Dining Room, and a further two flanking the chimneypiece in the same room.⁵ These photographs were then re-used in the 1953 Country Life article on Inveraray.⁶ In John Cornforth's compassionate articles documenting the house's rebirth following the 1975 fire,⁷ these chairs do not appear on any of the photographs: a Country Life shoot in 2015⁸ and the photographs currently published on the castle's website⁹ all confirm that only two chairs of this model remain at Inveraray today. These survivors still at Inveraray appear to be the two in the suite that are distinguished with an additional detail to the centre of the back rest, also visible on the two chairs at the ends of the dining table in the 1927 photos. At auction, there have only been two instances of chairs from this Inveraray suite appearing for sale, one being at Christie's in 1984¹⁰ and the other being the initial sale of the present six chairs at Phillips in 1991.¹¹

The attribution of this model is not definite, mainly because of a lack of detail in the records, but both stylistic and circumstantial reasoning suggests that they are possibly by John Linnell (1729–1796). Linnell was one of London's foremost furniture makers, with a strong body of surviving drawings and bills that mean that much of his output is clearly identified. These bills include those for General John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, who became the 5^th Duke of Argyll in 1770. Surviving bills, show that Linnell was paid £900 for furniture made between 1774 and 1781.¹² Some pieces of this Linnell furniture have been identified at Inveraray, including an important pair of confidantes, and is mostly in the Neoclassical style.¹³ It remains plausible, though, that these chairs were made by Linnell, given that his work contains plenty of precedents for Rococo pieces around 1770, such as the Shardeloes chairs,¹⁴ the closely similar ones from Benacre Hall sold at Sotheby's in 2000¹⁵ and the design E.59-1929 in the V&A.

¹ R. Strong, M. Binney and J. Harris (ed), The Destruction of the Country House 1875–1975, London, 1974, pp.188-192.

² H. James, The Spoils of Poynton, Oxford, 2008, p.183

³ 'The Fire: 50 Years On', Friends of Argyll Estates Archives. Available at: <https://argyllestatesarchives.org/the-fire-50-years-on/>.

⁴ C. Hussey 'Inveraray Castle, Argyllshire, The Seat of His Grace the Duke of Argyll', Country Life, 30 July 1927, pp.158-159, figs. 5 and 7. Available at: <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/80274/> (image FCH000070878), <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/161441/> (image FCH000152044)

⁵ Note that fig.5 shows two flanking the chimneypiece, but fig.7 shows chairs of a different model flanking the same chimneypiece, so there may only be eight.

⁶ C. Gotch, 'Inveraray Castle, Argyllshire, the Seat of the Duke of Argyll', Country Life, 25 June 1953, p.2061, fig.3.

⁷ See Country Life, 8 June 1978, 15 June 1978 and 7 October 1977.

⁸ J. Goodall, 'Harbinger of change: Inveraray Castle, Argyll, The seat of the Duke of Argyll', Country Life, 6 May 2015, p.61, fig.5. Available at <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/246141/> (image FCH000236628). The chairs are also visible at <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/246001/> (image FCH000236488), <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/452748/> (image FCH000443087), <https://www.futurecontenthub.com/asset/248372/> (image FCH000238858)

⁹ See 'Castle Interior Photo Gallery', Inveraray-castle.com. Available at: <https://www.inveraray-castle.com/castle/gallery/interior-photo-gallery>

¹⁰ Christie's London, 29 March 1984, lot 38.

¹¹ Phillips London, 19 February 1991, lots 131 to 133.

¹² 'Linnell, John (1729–1796)', British and Irish Furniture Makers Online, 29 March 2023. Available at: <https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/linnell-john-1729-96> 

¹³ See H. Hayward, 'Ordered from Berkeley Square: Inveraray and the Furniture of John Linnell', Country Life, 5 June 1975, pp. 1485-1488 and A. Coleridge, 'English furniture in the Duke of Argyll's collection at Inveraray Castle, The Connoisseur, January-April 1965, pp.154-161.

¹⁴ H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell: Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers, London, 1980, p.34, fig.61.

¹⁵ Sotheby's London, Benacre Hall, Suffolk, 9-11 May 2000, lot 38. Fn16