LATE 18TH CENTURY

The basic pattern for a painted 'cabriolet' chair-frame, with hermed legs and hollowed arm-supported and arched cresting, featured in the 1792 Estimate Sketch Book of Gillows of London and Lancaster (L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, pl. 29 and fig. 280). However, in place of the Roman-tripod splat illustrated in the latter design, this settee's five-legged tripod is festooned with veil drapery in the fashion popularised by James Wyatt (d. 1813), whose architectural dynasty had a close working relationship with the Gillows firm. A closely related splat pattern was published in Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793 (Appendix, pl. XLIX).