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Lot Essay
Amongst the houses being furnished by Chippendale between 1776 and 1778 was that of Sir Richard Worsley, Bt. (d. 1805) at Appuldurcombe on the Isle of Wight. There is a possibility that this pair of chairs may have formed part of the suite supplied for the Drawing Room, which was hung with '8 pieces of Gobelin Tapestry, representing the Arts & Sciences, copied from Bouchier's [sic] paintings at Versailles'. They were inventoried circa 1779 as: '8 Cabriole elbow chairs carv'd & gilt in burnish'd gold, & cover'd with Gobelin Tapestry. A Sofa to Match, cover'd wt. do.' (L. Boynton, 'Sir Richard Worsley's Furniture at Appuldurcombe Park', Furniture History, 1965, pp. 39-58). The presence of fine tapestry used to cover a pair of chairs from this suite, and which probably originally covered the Weinstock chairs, suggests that they may indeed be the Appuldurcombe 'Gobelins' chairs (sold Christie's, London, 4 June 2009, lot 107, £30,000). A stronger link is provided by the composition of Chippendale's accompanying Library chairs: these honoured ancient poets, by the presence of triumphal tripods bearing their laurelled medallions in arched pediments capped by palm-flowered acroteria also found on the present chairs (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, vol. II, fig. 152).
Appuldurcombe passed in 1805 to Sir Richard Worsley's niece Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Bridgeman Simpson (d. 1813). Following the death of her husband, its furnishings were largely dispersed between 1859 and 1863 by Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham, 2nd Earl of Yarborough (d. 1862) and Charles Anderson-Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough (d. 1875).
THE DESIGN
These French patterned drawing-room chairs reflect the influence of Parisian 'cabriolet' chairs composed 'dans le goût antique' as promoted by the architect Jean Charles Delafosse's Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, 1768 (2nd ed. 1771). Their flowered and triumphal-arched 'tablet' backs would appear to have been intended to frame figurative medallions worked in tapestry or needlework or in painted silk; while the Grecian scrolled arms terminate in Greek key-fretted volutes and sculpted in bas-relief with Grecian palm-flowered acroteria. Their reed-banded frames are also wreathed in 'Venus' pearl-strings in the late 1760s Pompeian Herculaneum or 'Etruscan' style introduced by the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). Pearl strings were also introduced by the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) and his son Thomas Chippendale the Younger (d. 1822) for seat-furniture designed for the Adam-decorated salon at Burton Constable, Yorkshire in the late 1770s; and which likewise featured this pattern of columnar and reed-clustered legs terminating in palm-flowered plinths (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 192-4). The elegance of the present chairs can also be identified in Chippendale the Younger's contemporary pattern-book entitled Sketches of Ornament, 1779 (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 28-30 and 33).
Appuldurcombe passed in 1805 to Sir Richard Worsley's niece Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Bridgeman Simpson (d. 1813). Following the death of her husband, its furnishings were largely dispersed between 1859 and 1863 by Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham, 2nd Earl of Yarborough (d. 1862) and Charles Anderson-Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough (d. 1875).
THE DESIGN
These French patterned drawing-room chairs reflect the influence of Parisian 'cabriolet' chairs composed 'dans le goût antique' as promoted by the architect Jean Charles Delafosse's Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, 1768 (2nd ed. 1771). Their flowered and triumphal-arched 'tablet' backs would appear to have been intended to frame figurative medallions worked in tapestry or needlework or in painted silk; while the Grecian scrolled arms terminate in Greek key-fretted volutes and sculpted in bas-relief with Grecian palm-flowered acroteria. Their reed-banded frames are also wreathed in 'Venus' pearl-strings in the late 1760s Pompeian Herculaneum or 'Etruscan' style introduced by the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). Pearl strings were also introduced by the St. Martin's Lane cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) and his son Thomas Chippendale the Younger (d. 1822) for seat-furniture designed for the Adam-decorated salon at Burton Constable, Yorkshire in the late 1770s; and which likewise featured this pattern of columnar and reed-clustered legs terminating in palm-flowered plinths (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 192-4). The elegance of the present chairs can also be identified in Chippendale the Younger's contemporary pattern-book entitled Sketches of Ornament, 1779 (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 28-30 and 33).