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Lot Essay
This pair of elegant armchairs was supplied to one of the most magnificent London townhouses of the 18th century, Spencer House. This historic mansion was commissioned by John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-1783) in 1756. Architect James ‘Athenian’ Stuart became lead architect of the project in 1758. His study of Ancient Greek architecture greatly influenced his designs, resulting in the construction of one of the first examples of Neoclassical buildings erected in London. Arthur Young, writing of Lord Spencer's house, noted - 'The hangings, carpets, glasses, sofas, chairs, tables, slabs - everything are not only astonishingly beautiful, but contain a vast variety. The carving and gilding is unrivalled. The taste in which every article throughout the whole house is executed is just and elegant'. The impressive size and pioneering design, as well as the elaborately furnished interiors, drew the most sophisticated of London high society, and solidified its place as the important landmark it remains today.
THE COMMISSION
These chairs were supplied around 1762 as part of a large suite of seat furniture, originally painted white with gilt enrichments in the French manner, and were supplied for two of the state apartments on the piano nobile that comprised a Great Saloon and its adjoining Drawing Room, known as Lady Spencer's Dressing-Room. The full suite comprised four sofas, twenty-six armchairs and sixteen side chairs, the majority of which remains at the Spencer country seat Althorp, Northamptonshire. A further suite of the same pattern was also supplied, all carved in mahogany, comprising nine armchairs, eight stools and a settee. The giltwood chairs were originally upholstered with green acanthus-patterned damask, corresponding to the wall-hangings put up in the rooms around 1764.
While the Palladian mansion had been built by John Vardy (d. 1765), architect to King George II's Board of Works, these rooms were decorated in the Grecian or antique manner by the architect James Stuart (d. 1793). Stuart worked partly under the guidance of the Society of Dilettanti, a group of connoisseurs/antiquarians who also assisted him with his publication of Grecian monuments entitled The Antiquities of Athens, 1762. Stuart, whose proposals for the furnishings of Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire in the late 1750s had demonstrated his interest in chair design, is likely to have directed the design of these chairs, whose fluted rails and Grecian palmettes correspond to the rooms' architecture (L. Harris, Robert Adam and Kedleston, London, 1987, pp. 26 and 27). In discussing Stuart's interior decoration, the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792) acknowledged:
'Mr Stuart with his usual elegance and taste has contributed greatly towards introducing the true style of antique decoration' (R. and J. Adams, The Works in Architecture, 1773). The pearl-framed palmettes can also be related to the ornament of Lord Spencer's remarkable suite of seat furniture that was supplied for the Palm Room or ground-floor withdrawing-room, decorated with palm-wrapped columns and furnishings designed by Vardy (J. Friedman, op. cit., fig. 87). A pair and a single armchair from the Palm Room suite are also in the Getty Collection and are offered as lots 12 and 357 respectively.
THE ATTRIBUTION
The chairs are likely to have been executed by the carver and chairmaker John Gordon (d. 1777) of St. James's, who may well be the 'Mr Gordon upholder....to Sir William Chambers' listed as a subscriber to Chamber's Treatise on Civil Architecture, 1759. Moreover, they almost certainly reflect his association with William Gordon, who was a subscriber to Chippendale's Director in 1754.The serpentined chairs with removable 'a chassis' frames relate to French 'easy chair' patterns illustrated in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Directors, 1754-63. Surviving documents show that the firm of Gordon and Taitt, with whom John Gordon formed a partnership in 1767, was supplying furniture and carrying out repairs for the Spencers by 1772, including the 'repairing and gilding' of the hall lantern at Spencer House and the making of 'loose covers' for Stuart's Painted Room suite. Although no documentary evidence survives for this suite, the theory of a longstanding relationship between Gordon and Earl Spencer's steward, Thomas Townsend, suggested by such comprehensive repairs, is confirmed by the appointment of the latter as Gordon's executor. Finally, the documented Gordon Furniture supplied to the 2nd Duke of Atholl for Blair Castle in 1748 provides close stylistic affinities with the Spencer House suites (P. Thornton and J. Hardy, op. cit., p. 448). It is the combination of these factors that allows for the confident attribution of the suite to the Gordon workshops. A pair from this set is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum [nos. W.51 & A. 1984].
THE COMMISSION
These chairs were supplied around 1762 as part of a large suite of seat furniture, originally painted white with gilt enrichments in the French manner, and were supplied for two of the state apartments on the piano nobile that comprised a Great Saloon and its adjoining Drawing Room, known as Lady Spencer's Dressing-Room. The full suite comprised four sofas, twenty-six armchairs and sixteen side chairs, the majority of which remains at the Spencer country seat Althorp, Northamptonshire. A further suite of the same pattern was also supplied, all carved in mahogany, comprising nine armchairs, eight stools and a settee. The giltwood chairs were originally upholstered with green acanthus-patterned damask, corresponding to the wall-hangings put up in the rooms around 1764.
While the Palladian mansion had been built by John Vardy (d. 1765), architect to King George II's Board of Works, these rooms were decorated in the Grecian or antique manner by the architect James Stuart (d. 1793). Stuart worked partly under the guidance of the Society of Dilettanti, a group of connoisseurs/antiquarians who also assisted him with his publication of Grecian monuments entitled The Antiquities of Athens, 1762. Stuart, whose proposals for the furnishings of Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire in the late 1750s had demonstrated his interest in chair design, is likely to have directed the design of these chairs, whose fluted rails and Grecian palmettes correspond to the rooms' architecture (L. Harris, Robert Adam and Kedleston, London, 1987, pp. 26 and 27). In discussing Stuart's interior decoration, the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792) acknowledged:
'Mr Stuart with his usual elegance and taste has contributed greatly towards introducing the true style of antique decoration' (R. and J. Adams, The Works in Architecture, 1773). The pearl-framed palmettes can also be related to the ornament of Lord Spencer's remarkable suite of seat furniture that was supplied for the Palm Room or ground-floor withdrawing-room, decorated with palm-wrapped columns and furnishings designed by Vardy (J. Friedman, op. cit., fig. 87). A pair and a single armchair from the Palm Room suite are also in the Getty Collection and are offered as lots 12 and 357 respectively.
THE ATTRIBUTION
The chairs are likely to have been executed by the carver and chairmaker John Gordon (d. 1777) of St. James's, who may well be the 'Mr Gordon upholder....to Sir William Chambers' listed as a subscriber to Chamber's Treatise on Civil Architecture, 1759. Moreover, they almost certainly reflect his association with William Gordon, who was a subscriber to Chippendale's Director in 1754.The serpentined chairs with removable 'a chassis' frames relate to French 'easy chair' patterns illustrated in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Directors, 1754-63. Surviving documents show that the firm of Gordon and Taitt, with whom John Gordon formed a partnership in 1767, was supplying furniture and carrying out repairs for the Spencers by 1772, including the 'repairing and gilding' of the hall lantern at Spencer House and the making of 'loose covers' for Stuart's Painted Room suite. Although no documentary evidence survives for this suite, the theory of a longstanding relationship between Gordon and Earl Spencer's steward, Thomas Townsend, suggested by such comprehensive repairs, is confirmed by the appointment of the latter as Gordon's executor. Finally, the documented Gordon Furniture supplied to the 2nd Duke of Atholl for Blair Castle in 1748 provides close stylistic affinities with the Spencer House suites (P. Thornton and J. Hardy, op. cit., p. 448). It is the combination of these factors that allows for the confident attribution of the suite to the Gordon workshops. A pair from this set is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum [nos. W.51 & A. 1984].