ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN LINNELL, CIRCA 1770

These chairs may be attributed to John Linnell based on the many design details associated with this celebrated cabinet-maker. The ball handholds clasped by acanthus are a recurrent motif in his documented work. They appear in a design attributed to Linnell of circa 1770-1775, as well as on a set of armchairs supplied to Robert Child for Osterley Park, Middlesex, a set supplied to the Earl of Harewood for Harewood House, Yorkshire and seat furniture supplied to the Duke of Argyll for Inverary Castle (see H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol.II, figs. 72, 87-89). The design of the crestrail compares to the seat furniture supplied for the Tapestry Room at Osterley Park (fig.92) and the broadly framed cartouche back with leaf-tip carved outer border figures on a suite of seat furniture supplied to the Duke of Northumberland's home at Stansted Park, Sussex and now at the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.

A giltwood armchair with remarkably similar back and carved crestrail was sold Christie's London, 23 May 1968 and is illustrated in G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, London, 1987, p. 160.