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Lot Essay
Lucy Wood discusses the relationship between the present lot and a pair of chairs now at the United Grand Lodge (Wood, op. cit, p. 484, fig. 338), as well as a further pair of Warden's Chairs now lost (but known from a photocopy illustration in the Lady Lever curatorial file) and a Master's Chair which was with Arthur Edwards in 1924 (Ibid, fig. 339). The chairs from the Lodge of Benevolence represent a later evolution of the Masonic chair pattern, with their square tapering legs, straightened back stiles and Hepplewhite-like cresting; the C scroll-carved cresting of the earlier pattern having evolved into a continuous serpentine line. Interestingly, a further chair attributed to Hepplewhite is in the Grand Lodge Museum, Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, London.
It appears that most ceremonial chairs - and not exclusively Masonic chairs - typically feature similar C-scroll crestings, including the Chair of the President of Lyon's Inn, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (ill. in V & A, English Chairs, 1970, fig. 63). Amongst the ceremonial chairs most closely-related to the present lot, a set was supplied by George Seddon & Son to the Bridge Committee, Rochester, Kent, in 1785 (C. Gilbert, `A Few Seddon Gleanings', Furniture History, Leeds, 1998, pp. 228 - 233, and figs. 4 - 6).
It appears that most ceremonial chairs - and not exclusively Masonic chairs - typically feature similar C-scroll crestings, including the Chair of the President of Lyon's Inn, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (ill. in V & A, English Chairs, 1970, fig. 63). Amongst the ceremonial chairs most closely-related to the present lot, a set was supplied by George Seddon & Son to the Bridge Committee, Rochester, Kent, in 1785 (C. Gilbert, `A Few Seddon Gleanings', Furniture History, Leeds, 1998, pp. 228 - 233, and figs. 4 - 6).