.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Joseph Leeson, later Lord Russborough and the Earl of Milltown (d. 1783) employed the architect Richard Castle (d. 1751) to design his elegant Roman villa at Russborough, County Wicklow in the early 1740s, and was in Italy collecting works of art for its embellishment in 1744-5. These chairs were designed for Russborough's Saloon, which was conceived in the George II 'Roman' manner with stuccoed ornament recalling the Golden Age and its harvests. The seasons are celebrated by Amorini sporting in the room's coved ceiling amongst Roman acanthus cartouches, that are festooned with the Arcadian deity Ceres' garlands of fruit and flowers. Flowers and the 'Roman leaf' or acanthus also ornament the crimson 'caffoy' velvet wall-hangings and the original 'caffoy' upholstery of the seat furniture, which would have been ranged against the walls (see illustration of the Saloon circa 1935, from the Country Life archive, S. O'Reilly, Irish Houses and Gardens, London, 1998, p. 87). While Roman virtue is recalled at the room's hearth by the sculpted tablet displayed beneath the temple-pedimented marble chimneypiece, its hermed pilasters support busts of ancient poets. The chairs' architectural and rectilinear frames are executed in mahogany, and their pillared legs harmonise with the room's architecture including its mahogany dado panelling and its pedimented and Corinthian-columned door. Appropriate to this great room-of-entertainment, and alluding to the mythological banquets of the gods, the pillars of the chairs are supported on claws, that recall the eagle attendant of Jupiter, father of the gods.
Lord Russborough's chairs are masterpieces of mid-18th Century Dublin craftsmanship, with their Roman elegance of Vitruvius Hibernicus. Indeed, Lady Kildare, who admired the fine house on her visit in 1759, described its furniture as 'magnificent' (The Knight of Glin, 'Russborough - its decoration and furniture, some preliminary thoughts', in S. Bendetti, The Milltowns, Dublin, 1997, pp. 119-123).
This pair of chairs is part of an extensive suite comprising at least fourteen armchairs, two sofas and a daybed. Four pairs of chairs with their original upholstery were sold at Christie's London: two pairs on 8 February 1996, lots 194 and 195; and two further pairs being sold by the same vendor on 30 November 2000, lots 80 and 81. Six chairs, including the present pair, are known to have been with Apter Fredericks circa 1990. A sofa from the suite, now in a private collection, is illustrated in Irish Furniture, The Knight of Glin and James Peill, London, 2007, p. 81, fig. 102.
Lord Russborough's chairs are masterpieces of mid-18th Century Dublin craftsmanship, with their Roman elegance of Vitruvius Hibernicus. Indeed, Lady Kildare, who admired the fine house on her visit in 1759, described its furniture as 'magnificent' (The Knight of Glin, 'Russborough - its decoration and furniture, some preliminary thoughts', in S. Bendetti, The Milltowns, Dublin, 1997, pp. 119-123).
This pair of chairs is part of an extensive suite comprising at least fourteen armchairs, two sofas and a daybed. Four pairs of chairs with their original upholstery were sold at Christie's London: two pairs on 8 February 1996, lots 194 and 195; and two further pairs being sold by the same vendor on 30 November 2000, lots 80 and 81. Six chairs, including the present pair, are known to have been with Apter Fredericks circa 1990. A sofa from the suite, now in a private collection, is illustrated in Irish Furniture, The Knight of Glin and James Peill, London, 2007, p. 81, fig. 102.