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Lot Essay
The form and decoration of these richly carved armchairs are characteristic of the French 'picturesque' style invented by artists, architects, and ornamenistes such as Juste-Aurèle Meissonier (d.1750) and Gilles-Marie Oppenordt (d.1742). Their elegant, almost sculptural form epitomizes the features promoted for ‘moveables’ or furnishings by William Hogarth in his 1753 publication, The Analysis of Beauty. The fashionable style was captured by Thomas Chippendale’s 1754 pattern-book The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director, and these chairs closely follow a design for ‘French Chairs’ illustrated in plate XVIII of the publication. Commenting on this design, Chippendale noted: ‘... A skilful Workman may also lessen the Carving, without any Prejudice to the Design. Both the Backs and the Seats must be covered with Tapestry, or other sort of Needlework'.
CLIVE OF INDIA
These armchairs are part of a suite of twelve that were sold from Walcot Hall, Lydbury North, Shropshire, in 1929. Walcot was the principal home of the famed ‘Clive of India’, Robert Clive (1725-1774), 1st Baron Clive of Plassey, and it is possible that the chairs were a special commission. Clive was the son of an unsuccessful Shropshire squire who went to India in 1744 as a junior clerk for the East India Company. After little more than twelve years, from 1743-53, 1754-60 and 1765-7, Clive's military genius consolidated the British position in India and laid the foundations for the British Raj. Clive's personal fortunes had an equally dramatic change, as he managed to parlay an initial £40,000 made from a diamond investment into an estate worth over £500,000 at the time of his death. Reputedly the wealthiest man in England, he was created Lord Clive of Plassey in 1760 and purchased Walcot and its 80,000 acre park in 1764. He commissioned Sir William Chambers (d.1796), architect to King George III, to redesign the house entirely. Chambers spared no expense and employed master craftsmen such as the carver Sefferin Alken and the ornamental plasterer Joseph Wilton to create the interiors. Intriguingly, Chambers' work at Walcot coincides with another of his commissions, Pembroke House, where he is known to have collaborated with Thomas Chippendale. The two men worked together again in 1774 when they were commissioned by Lord Melbourne for Melbourne House.
THE MAKER
Although a Chippendale attribution is tempting, particularly as the design of the chairs adheres closely to his patterns, they lack certain constructional elements such as cramp cuts and batten holes to the frames. This opens up the possibility that they are the work of an equally talented but currently unknown maker. One candidate presents itself in a documented suite of seat furniture commissioned by Clive for his Berkeley Square townhouse in the 1760's which has since been attributed to the London cabinet-maker Charles Arbuckle of St. Alban's Street, Pall Mall. This suite shares the same profile and scale but differs in its more flatly carved crestrail ending in distinct corners as well as scrolled feet. (O. Fairclough, ‘In the Richest and Most Elegant Manner; A Suite of Furniture for Clive of India,’ Furniture History, 2000). Part of this suite remains at another Clive residence, Powis Castle, while a pair of armchairs and six side chairs were sold from the Collection of Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg (Sotheby's, New York, 26 May 2000, lot 268).
THE WALCOT HALL PROVENANCE
The Walcot connection for the suite of twelve armchairs was previously cited, but remained conjectural until now. They were listed in the dining room at Walcot Hall, and were sold sequentially as pairs from the sale on the premises by Harrods, 22-26 July 1929, lots 712-717. At the time they were catalogued as Louis XV and were painted and parcel-gilt (this is certain, as one of the chairs is illustrated in the auction catalogue, plate opposite page 30). Whether the armchairs were originally commissioned for Walcot, or moved there later from another Clive residence is yet to be determined.
At least five pairs (ten chairs) from the suite have been identified. All have had their frames stripped of their original decoration, were stained, and polished. Of the group, the majority were later upholstered with contemporary needlework covers and comprise:
1. The current pair.
2. A pair with needlework panels depicting figures playing cards and youths by a stream:
With Charles of London, New York.
Mrs. George L. Mesker, 'La Fontana', Palm Beach, Florida, sold 27-30 October 1943, lot 766 (sold en suite with the current pair which were lot 767).
3. A pair with needlework panels depicting figures dancing around a maypole and a seated figure with lyre:
With Symons Galleries, Inc., New York, in 1934 (illustrated in 'Exhibits of Decorative Arts', The Art News, New York, 10 Nov. 1934, p. 10, and in J. Aronson, The Book of Furniture and Decoration: Period and Modern, New York, 1936, p. 113).
Property Sold by Order of Harvey T. Mann, Trustee; Anderson Art Galleries, New York, 31 January-1 February 1936, lot 405 (previously thought to have been from the Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt Collection, which was sold in the same auction alongside property from Harvey T. Mann).
A New York Private Collector; Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 19-21 February 1942, lot 489.
Anonymous sale; Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, February 1952, lot 344.
Now in a private collection, New York.
4. A pair with needlework panels depicting figures in a garden setting or reveling dancers:
With Edward I. Farmer, Inc., New York, in 1934.
(Exhibited: The Fine Arts Exposition, Rockefeller Center, New York, November, 1934. See: E. Riefstahl, 'English Interiors Recreate Splendors of the Past in Many Styles and Periods at Exposition', The Art News, New York, 10 Nov. 1934, p. 6).
Mrs. Elmer T. Cunningham, Monterey, California; Parke-Bernet Inc, New York, 14 March 1959, lot 114.
5. A pair with Mortlake tapestry panels depicting flower-filled vases:
With Symons, Inc., New York.
Robert J. Dunham; sold Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 9-10 May 1947, lot 370.
Walter P. Chrysler Jr., sold Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 6-7 May 1960, lot 372.
(illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1968, pl.185).
A further two pairs, without needlework upholstery have also been identified. One sold Sotheby's, New York 22 October 2010, lot 216 and the other sold from a Private Collector; Christie's, New York, 15 April 2011, lot 558. It is certainly possible that one of them could be a newly discovered pair. However, as it has been decades since some of the pairs have appeared at public auction, thus they could also be one of the five listed above, stripped of their needlework covers and re-gilt.