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Lot Essay
This elegant set of sixteen dining-chairs is a remarkable survival. With their sophisticated design, carefully chosen mahogany of excellent grain, colour and patina and exceptional carving, the Weller-Poley dining-chairs follow a design by Thomas Chippendale and bear all of the hallmarks of Soho and St Martin's Lane contemporaries such as Mayhew and Ince. Originally part of a larger suite of furniture including a pair of card-tables and four rectangular stools almost certainly supplied to George Weller-Poley Esq., the suite remained in situ at Boxted Hall in Suffolk until sold at Christie’s on 3 July 1997 for £375,500 (inc. premium).
THE WELLER-POLEY SUITE
This exceptional set of dining chairs formed part of a larger suite of furniture comprising a pair of card-tables and four rectangular stools1. It was almost certainly supplied to George Weller-Poley, the only son of Elizabeth Poley of Boxted Hall and Robert Weller of Tunbridge in Kent, who inherited the estate at the age of 41 on his father's death in 1751.
His efforts to improve the estate are supported by two letters, as cited by Anthony Coleridge in the Christie's, London 3 July 1997 catalogue entry, when this suite of dining-chairs last appeared on the market. The first, dated 5 November 1757, is to George from a Mr. Nelthorpe who writes 'However I am glad that you have the whole estate at last. I wish you a succession of many happy years to enjoy it after you have made it compleat and elegant in every part' (Weller-Poley archives, Suffolk Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds, HA519/204). The second, dated 8 September 1767, by which time the work must have been completed, was written by a kinsman William Croftes and includes the following 'I have the misfortune to be deprived of the use of my limbs by hereditary gout that will not permit me to make any visits, or I should most certainly have paid my respects to you at Boxted, and it would have given me a double pleasure in waiting upon you at a place, where in my younger days, I had been so kindly and hospitably received and which my worthy good friend Mr. Elwes has told me is so much improved by your elegant taste' (op. cit., HA519/189).
Family tradition holds that the suite had been at Boxted Hall for many generations. Although there are no family papers or inventories of the period to provide any details on the possible maker, the suite is beautifully drawn, highly sophisticated in design and the quality of its carving is supreme, all of which supports an attribution to a major London cabinet-maker.
The chairs demonstrate a rare mix of design and decorative detail. They have 'French Rococo' splats of interlaced arcaded form and square legs carved with bells, fret, rosettes and stylised foliage and scrolls. The stools and tables have similarly carved legs. The stretchers of the chairs and stools are most unusual and are of angled faceted and squared form.
Thomas Chippendale published designs for 'New Pattern Chairs', in plates IX and XII of the 1754 Director and the splats of the Weller-Poley chairs are comparable to these designs. However, of the six chairs illustrated in these two plates, four have cabriole legs and only two have square legs with carved ornament and only one has a stretcher. Chippendale does not mix Chinese ornament with chairs of this form and design. There is a set of mahogany 'parlour' chairs at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, with similar backs and plain square legs, which were possibly supplied by Chippendale, otherwise there are no documented sets of chairs of this form from his Director period.
In 1762, Mayhew and Ince published their Universal System of Household Furniture which included two plates of designs for 'Parlour Chairs'. Plate IX includes one of a chair with comparable splat and top-rail, and with square carved legs which are united by pierced shaped stretchers. The Universal System also includes a plate showing designs for card-tables, one of which is carved with variations of Chinoiserie fret ornament (pl. LII).
The 'Chinese' legs, featuring a very unusual bell-design incorporated into the fretwork, relate to designs by Robert Manwaring from The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion (1765), plate IV illustrates a design for a 'parlour' chair with a square leg headed by a bell. Plate XII shows designs for two 'Chinese Chairs', one of which has Chinese fret carved legs with bells. These are the only known chair designs of the period with bells on the legs. No documented pieces of furniture by Manwaring are recorded, whether chairs or anything else, although he claimed that his designs 'are actually Originals, and not pirated or copied', adding 'there are very few designs advanced, but what he has either executed himself, or seem completely finished by others'. Manwaring also designed a rectangular stool with a Chinese fret leg which can be compared with the present lot.
Regardless of authorship, these chairs represent the apogee of English chair design and the Weller-Poley suite is a remarkably beautiful set.
1. A pair of stools from the suite sold, The William F. Reilly Collection; Christie's, New York, 14 October 2009, lot 126, for $98,500 (inc. premium).
THE WELLER-POLEY SUITE
This exceptional set of dining chairs formed part of a larger suite of furniture comprising a pair of card-tables and four rectangular stools1. It was almost certainly supplied to George Weller-Poley, the only son of Elizabeth Poley of Boxted Hall and Robert Weller of Tunbridge in Kent, who inherited the estate at the age of 41 on his father's death in 1751.
His efforts to improve the estate are supported by two letters, as cited by Anthony Coleridge in the Christie's, London 3 July 1997 catalogue entry, when this suite of dining-chairs last appeared on the market. The first, dated 5 November 1757, is to George from a Mr. Nelthorpe who writes 'However I am glad that you have the whole estate at last. I wish you a succession of many happy years to enjoy it after you have made it compleat and elegant in every part' (Weller-Poley archives, Suffolk Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds, HA519/204). The second, dated 8 September 1767, by which time the work must have been completed, was written by a kinsman William Croftes and includes the following 'I have the misfortune to be deprived of the use of my limbs by hereditary gout that will not permit me to make any visits, or I should most certainly have paid my respects to you at Boxted, and it would have given me a double pleasure in waiting upon you at a place, where in my younger days, I had been so kindly and hospitably received and which my worthy good friend Mr. Elwes has told me is so much improved by your elegant taste' (op. cit., HA519/189).
Family tradition holds that the suite had been at Boxted Hall for many generations. Although there are no family papers or inventories of the period to provide any details on the possible maker, the suite is beautifully drawn, highly sophisticated in design and the quality of its carving is supreme, all of which supports an attribution to a major London cabinet-maker.
The chairs demonstrate a rare mix of design and decorative detail. They have 'French Rococo' splats of interlaced arcaded form and square legs carved with bells, fret, rosettes and stylised foliage and scrolls. The stools and tables have similarly carved legs. The stretchers of the chairs and stools are most unusual and are of angled faceted and squared form.
Thomas Chippendale published designs for 'New Pattern Chairs', in plates IX and XII of the 1754 Director and the splats of the Weller-Poley chairs are comparable to these designs. However, of the six chairs illustrated in these two plates, four have cabriole legs and only two have square legs with carved ornament and only one has a stretcher. Chippendale does not mix Chinese ornament with chairs of this form and design. There is a set of mahogany 'parlour' chairs at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, with similar backs and plain square legs, which were possibly supplied by Chippendale, otherwise there are no documented sets of chairs of this form from his Director period.
In 1762, Mayhew and Ince published their Universal System of Household Furniture which included two plates of designs for 'Parlour Chairs'. Plate IX includes one of a chair with comparable splat and top-rail, and with square carved legs which are united by pierced shaped stretchers. The Universal System also includes a plate showing designs for card-tables, one of which is carved with variations of Chinoiserie fret ornament (pl. LII).
The 'Chinese' legs, featuring a very unusual bell-design incorporated into the fretwork, relate to designs by Robert Manwaring from The Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion (1765), plate IV illustrates a design for a 'parlour' chair with a square leg headed by a bell. Plate XII shows designs for two 'Chinese Chairs', one of which has Chinese fret carved legs with bells. These are the only known chair designs of the period with bells on the legs. No documented pieces of furniture by Manwaring are recorded, whether chairs or anything else, although he claimed that his designs 'are actually Originals, and not pirated or copied', adding 'there are very few designs advanced, but what he has either executed himself, or seem completely finished by others'. Manwaring also designed a rectangular stool with a Chinese fret leg which can be compared with the present lot.
Regardless of authorship, these chairs represent the apogee of English chair design and the Weller-Poley suite is a remarkably beautiful set.
1. A pair of stools from the suite sold, The William F. Reilly Collection; Christie's, New York, 14 October 2009, lot 126, for $98,500 (inc. premium).