A PAIR OF GEORGE III STYLE MAHOGANY LIBRARY ARMCHAIRS

A PAIR OF GEORGE III STYLE MAHOGANY LIBRARY ARMCHAIRS AFTER THE DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM VILE, PROBABLY 19TH CENTURYThe rectangular padded backs, arms and seats upholstered in machine-made floral needlework, the arm supports carved with florets and with incised hatched trellis decoration, on square legs carved with similar hatched panels and wrapped with carved foliage, fruit and acorns on guttae feet and headed by pierced 'Chinese' angle brackets, with metal castors, the backs unusually low and possibly reduced in height 89cm high, 66cm wide, 68cm deep Provenance: Acquired August 1919, `A pair of fine Chippendale stuffed back chairs with carved arms & straight legs with raised fruit & flowers £300' The chairs feature distinctive foliate-wrapped legs carved with oblong trellis panels and guttae feet derived from the pattern for the celebrated drawing-room suite commissioned by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1771) for St. Giles's House, Dorset, which originally comprised four settees and at least twenty-five open armchairs. For many years the manufacture of the suite was credited to Thomas Chippendale who illustrated such chairs which he described as being in the 'Modern' style in his Director, indeed, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1885) described the St Giles' furniture as being 'very valuable and fine, being by Chippendale'. However, the suite is now attributed to William Vile (d. 1767), who worked with William Hallett (d. 1773) before receiving his appointment as 'cabinet-maker' to George III. Vile adopted guttae feet for the stools which he and his partner John Cobb supplied in 1753 for the Vyne, Hampshire (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, p. 27, fig. 28). The attribution also derives from the superb and intricate carving of the suite corresponding to furnishings supplied by Vile and Cobb to George III and Queen Charlotte for Royal residences including St. James Palace and the Queen's House, now Buckingham Palace. A related suite of seat furniture in walnut, attributed to Vile, was at Harleyford Manor, Buckinghamshire, presumably supplied around 1760 to William Clayton (d.1783). The house was built from a design by the architect Sir Robert Taylor who pulled down an earlier house bought by Sir William Clayton, 1st Bt. (d.1744) and replaced it with the design that survives today. The Harleyford suite was sold from a private Eaton Square collection at Christie's, London, 2 May 2013, lots 79 (ten side chairs and a (pair of sofas), 80 (pair of stools) and 81 (single stool) The ten chairs and sofas were sold again anonymously at Christie's, London, 17 March 2022, lots 11 and 13 respectively.