Item Description
Product Description A hand carved mahogany framed, parcel gilt and upholstered chair, the serpentine trailing husk carved cartouche back centred by a floral carved crest, with padded arms and finely carved scroll uprights, enclosing an upholstered seat above a shaped, floral carved and fluted frieze, on carved cabriole legs terminating scroll feet.
Collection Features Inspired by the original Sabicu and Limewood chair at Althorp, designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart for Spencer House and executed by John Gordon between 1758 and 1765. The 1st Earl Spencer employed James 'Athenian' Stuart (1713-1788), who had just returned from Greece, to decorate a house that would be the very first example of the accurate application of classical design to interior decoration. Spencer House, overlooking Green Park in St James's, London, was intended to be at the forefront of style and design in mid 18th century England and, as such, established the Spencers as a family of great intellect, sophistication and taste. This settee was part of a suite of seat furniture that is amongst the most successful of John Gordon's work. Gordon (Full. 1748-d. 1777), a cabinet-maker and upholsterer, was likely involved in furnishing Spencer House from the beginning. The hybrid Neo-Classical design exhibited in the suite seems to be the result of collaboration between James 'Athenian' Stuart, who replaced John Vardy as architect of Spencer House in 1758, and John Gordon. James 'Athenian' Stuart is widely recognized for his central role in pioneering Neo-Classicism. His influential career ranged across interior decoration, sculpture, furnishing, metalwork and architecture. Both the first Earl Spencer and Stuart were members of the Society of Dilettanti and it was under this Society's patronage that Stuart travelled with Nicholas Revett to Athens in 1751, resulting in the eventual publication of Stuart and Revett's 'The Antiquities of Athens'. The creation of the 'Greek Style' and its impact on British design in the late 18th century is largely due to this landmark publication, the first accurate record of Classical Greek architecture, which served as a principal source book for architects and designers well into the 19th century. The largest set of this pattern, comprising twenty-six armchairs, eighteen plain chairs and four sofas, was originally painted in white and gold on frames of hardwood and lime and supplied to Earl Spencer for the Great Ballroom at Spencer House. Circa 1814 the suite may have been transferred to Althorp, Northamptonshire. The suite returned to Spencer House around 1847. Certainly by 1874, when an armchair was photographed in the Picture Gallery the suite had returned to Althorp. Photographs taken from 1892 onwards show more of the suite in various rooms. The 7th, 'Curator', Earl Spencer (1892-1975) noted in his manuscript catalog that one of the sofas 'was in the Patchwork Bedroom, covered in chintz. In 1911 it was upholstered in red velvet and placed in the Picture Gallery'. A smaller group was made for Lord Spencer in polished hardwood - at least nine armchairs and eight stools of varying size. The original home of this suite is uncertain. One possibility is that it was supplied for Wimbledon Park, Surrey, a Palladian house built for Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough in the 1730s, which Stuart transformed for Earl Spencer (Sarah's great-grandson) over the same period as his work at Spencer House. Most of the contents of Wimbledon were destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1785. It is therefore more probable that this suite originated, like the white-and-gold suite, at Spencer House. The room most likely to have housed this suite is the ground-floor family Drawing Room - where a sofa could have occupied the long wall opposite the north window. This corner room (now the Library) sat between the family Dining Parlour and the Great Eating Room, which in turn led to the celebrated Palm Room, the climax of the ground-floor apartments. In his 1930s inventory of furniture at Althorp, the 'curator' 7th Earl Spencer notes correspondence from Philip Hardwick to Frederick, 4th Earl Spencer on 4 November 1847: ''I have this morning been to Mr. Wakeling, the upholsterer and examined the furniture which has been removed from the principal rooms of Spencer House - it is very fine old furniture - the carving of the large sofas very good, and also altho' it will require a good deal of repairing, yet it appears to me to be well worth doing. I received from Mr. Wakeling the enclosed estimate of repairing and regilding it, which amounts to £580. It is very difficult to form a judgement upon these estimates, but to have the furniture well done and restored in white and gold as it was formerly, it does not appear an excessive estimate altho' the amount is large.''