An important pair of lion-mask… - Exceptional in Australia, 2024 - Artvisory

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Description:

An important pair of lion-mask dining chairs, originally gilded, English 18th century 64 cm wide 104 cm high at the back, seat 48 cm high from the floor. An important pair of lion-mask dining chairs, originally gilded, English 18th century. with the remains of the original gilding and gesso to the under-frames. Provenance: Acquired at auction in the US. A highly significant private Sydney collection. Exhibited: For many years until recently at The Union Club, Bent street, Sydney. These chairs relate to an important suite created by James Moore for Stowe House in England and it would be exciting to think they might possibly have once been part of a large suite of seat-furniture which includes chairs, together with matching settees, stools and a pair of side tables. Now in various private collections, the group, until William Reider published an article titled 'A Gilt Gesso Set of Furniture Traditionally from Stowe', in The Journal of The Furniture History Society, Volume XIV, 1978, had become 'entrenched in the literature as from Stowe and by James Moore' (op. cit. p. 9). Also, it seems that it was originally assumed that the suite as a whole dated from the 18th century, but it is now clear that the majority of the chairs at least were actually made in the late 19th century. See a pair thought to be circa 1900 that sold Sothebys Important English Furniture NY 16 October 2008 lot 190 where they sold for US$53,125.00. The major contents of Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, the ducal mansion of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, were dispersed in a major sale in 1848, occasioned by the financial difficulties of Richard Grenville, the second Duke. Unfortunately, both the entries found in 'Inventory of the Household Furniture &c at Stowe House' taken in 1839, or the descriptions in the 1848 sale catalogue, are insufficiently detailed to allow a positive identification to be made with the suite as a whole which, according to Rieder. included at least thirty-five pieces. Of these, there are a number of chairs recorded very similar to the present examples which are now in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen including a set of six in the Queen's Audience Room at Windsor Castle which was sold at Christie's in London in May 1939 from the Collection of William Randolph Hearst, being described as 'From the Collection of the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Stowe House', and a further twenty-two chairs, twenty-one being in the Queen's Drawing Room and Presence Chamber, and another in a store-room. These were acquired from Sotheby's in London in two sales, twelve being sold on January 31, 1964, and ten on July 2 1965, two of these being described as circa 1725, 'the rest later'. They were sold by the descendants of the daughter of the South African mining magnate Sir Joseph P. Robinson who had almost certainly acquired them during his tenancy of Dudley House, Park Lane in the late 19th and early 20th century. Dudley House was the London residence of Lord Ward, Ist Earl of Dudley, being subsequently leased by his son, the 2nd Earl of Dudley in 1895 to Sir Joseph P. Robinson. Presumably Sir Joseph acquired twelve of the chairs during this tenancy, these appearing in a photograph taken in 1890 of the Dining Room at the time of the second Earl, and it is of course possible that the other ten chairs were also at Dudley House at that time, but in another room. Dimensions: 64 cm wide 104 cm high at the back, seat 48 cm high from the floor

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Category:

Unclassified