拍品专文
The design of the central part of the stretchers relates to that on the left hand 'French chair' in a design by Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director, 1st ed., 1754, pl. XVII. A roughly equivalent design in the 3rd edition of 1763, pl. XIX, is already plainer with an apparently upholstered front seat-rail and solid stretchers. It is interesting however that the right leg of the relevant 1754 chair is square, solid and carved with as simple blind fretwork as its 1763 equivalent. The slightly-squashed serpentine ovals flanking the central fret on the stretcher of the present lot seem to be a development of the popular eared oval that appears in the same place in pl. XVII in the 1754 edition and, for example, on the legs of a design probably by Robert Manwaring, pl. 15 in Genteel Houshold Furniture in the Present Taste, 2nd ed., circa 1765. (Cf. the frieze of the pair of chairs sold in these Rooms, 4 July 1990, lot 70). A library chair with the same motif was sold in these Rooms, 20 October 1986, lot 40.
The greek key fret was a popular architectural motif with Inigo Jones and William Kent. It also appears on the legs, frame and stretchers of an open armchair designed by Kent, illustrated in John Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, London, 1744, pl. 43. It is perhaps more significant that it appears as a very bold base frieze on half of a design for a clothe's chest in Chippendale, op.cit., pl. CI (1754) and pl. CXXVIII (1763).
Carlton Towers is the ancient home of the Stapleton family, who in 1840 successfully claimed the Beaumont barony, extinct since 1507. The house was much altered during the long tenure of Thomas Stapleton from 1750 to 1821. He continued the process started by his father of modernising the Jacobean interiors started by his father and from 1770 built the huge east wing which is now clad in what Dr. Girouard has called 'elaborate Victorian fancy dress'. It is historically interesting that these chairs, from a large suite of twelve armchairs and two sofas which were almost certainly commissioned for Thomas Stapleton's house, were Victorianised presumably during further alterations circa 1870. It seems likely that the red velvet upholstery, fringes and expanded padded arms were put on at this time. A pair of the chairs is illustrated in situ in the Victorian Card Room in Mark Girouard, 'Carlton Towers III', Country Life, vol. CXLI, 9 February 1967, p. 281
The greek key fret was a popular architectural motif with Inigo Jones and William Kent. It also appears on the legs, frame and stretchers of an open armchair designed by Kent, illustrated in John Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, London, 1744, pl. 43. It is perhaps more significant that it appears as a very bold base frieze on half of a design for a clothe's chest in Chippendale, op.cit., pl. CI (1754) and pl. CXXVIII (1763).
Carlton Towers is the ancient home of the Stapleton family, who in 1840 successfully claimed the Beaumont barony, extinct since 1507. The house was much altered during the long tenure of Thomas Stapleton from 1750 to 1821. He continued the process started by his father of modernising the Jacobean interiors started by his father and from 1770 built the huge east wing which is now clad in what Dr. Girouard has called 'elaborate Victorian fancy dress'. It is historically interesting that these chairs, from a large suite of twelve armchairs and two sofas which were almost certainly commissioned for Thomas Stapleton's house, were Victorianised presumably during further alterations circa 1870. It seems likely that the red velvet upholstery, fringes and expanded padded arms were put on at this time. A pair of the chairs is illustrated in situ in the Victorian Card Room in Mark Girouard, 'Carlton Towers III', Country Life, vol. CXLI, 9 February 1967, p. 281