Seating

A design developed by the Greeks in the 5th Century BC, gaining popularity throughout the 4th Century BC. The design was then resurrected in the English Regency period. The Klismos c...

An elegant George III style mahogany library chair, with brass castors. Can be supplied in specialist aged leather or upholstered in the clients own material. Bespoke sizing, design ...

A finely carved and water gilded armchair by William Kent for Chiswick House. The frames carved with acanthus and bellflowers; the arm supports with lion’s mask terminals. To be upho...

An exceptional carved and paint decorated hall chair from a design by Thomas Chippendale for Harewood house. The chairs with symmetrically carved foliate backs, centred by a gilded a...

A sofa designed by Robert Adam and made by Thomas Chippendale for Sir Lawrence Dundas for the Great Room at Arlington Street, London. Hand carved and water gilded to match the origin...

A fine carved and water gilded library armchair designed by Robert Adam and made by Thomas Chippendale for the Great Room at Arlington Street, London. The serpentine scrolled crestin...

A William Kent design gilded wood library armchair with tapering square legs, acanthus and shell carvings, vitruvian scroll rails and swept arms with acanthus roundel and bell-flower...

An important carved mahogany library armchair of large proportions inspired by Charles Heathcote Tatham’s designs from the Grand Tour. To be upholstered in the clients own material. ...

An important carved gilt-wood day bed, displaying the mythological influences and designs of the Regency period. Comparisons may be drawn with the furnishings of Brighton Pavilion. T...

A fine and important George III design attributed to Robert Adam, circa 1775. The Adam Armchair is carved gilt-wood and upholstered in the client’s own material. Bespoke sizing, d...

A fine Hepplewhite design shaped and upholstered back dining chair. The shaped upholstered back with reeded framing. The seat rail with fluted decoration. The tapered legs with reces...

A fine and well-drawn George II design country house library/drawing room wing chair. This chair is unusual in that it has extremely generous proporti...

We are delighted to offer this important suite of museum quality, George III circa 1760-1765, Thomas Chippendale Chinese Pagoda top dining chairs with the original embroidered seat pads Where to begin, if you’re looking at this listing then the chances are you know exactly how significant this suite is. Thomas Chippendale was simply put, the most important furniture designer in history. A similar suite of twelve chairs with one reproduction that were attributed to Chippendale...

A fine carved giltwood window seat after a design by Robert Adam. Upholstered in client’s own material. Bespoke sizing, design adaptations and finishing available. We are curr...

A fine Hepplewhite design lattice back dining chair. The shaped open fret back with reeded framing. The seat rail with fluted decoration. The tapered legs with recessed star panel to...

A fine gothic Chippendale design lattice back and carved dining chair with pointed arches and carved central paterae. Available as arms and singles in specialist paint finish, as in ...

A fine William Kent carved teak garden or hall bench. The pedimented back with reverse carved shell below. Please note we are currently working to a 30-36 week lead time and that th...

An exceptional bespoke carved giltwood sofa modelled closely upon the sofa in Buckingham Palace. The feet altered to a more delicate scroll toe. The original sofa was removed from th...

A fine Hepplewhite design parcel gilded sofa with arched shaped serpentine crest rail, straight front rail and fine tapered and fluted legs. This sofa is classically upholstered and ...

A fine George II gilt-wood banquet chair with a classical rake to the back on acanthus and shell carved legs terminating in a carved hairy paw claw foot...

A fine carved and water gilded dining chair by Robert Adam and made by Thomas Chippendale for the great Room at Arlington Street, London. The serpentine scrolled cresting is bordered...

A fine regency design Grand Tour inspired mahogany bench/hall seat of elegant proportions. Almost certainly designed by renowned Charles Heathcote Tatham. Bespoke sizing, design a...

A fine Regency design taken from Ditchley park, with carved and decorated sabre legs. The back with brass ball finals and the frame with inset paterae. The...

Royal House Antiques Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this lovely suite of six, fully restored hand, dyed cigar leather English tub or club armchairs with Thomas Chippendale style floating button Chesterfield seat...

A fine carved teak tennis bench. Exterior seat pads can be supplied if required. Seat pads upholstered in client’s own material. Please note we are currently working to a 30-36 week...

This handsome carved mahogany library or ‘Gainsborough’ armchair has a gently curving back and shaped arms which have acanthus leaf carved scrolled handles and leaf carved moulded su...

Royal House Antiques We are delighted to offer this important suite of museum quality, antique Colonial Rosewood Thomas Chippendale, fret work carved dining chairs Please note the delivery fee listed is just a guide and covers London only for the UK and local Europe for the rest of the world, if you are outside of this area please send me your address and I will provide you with an accurate quote Where to begin, if you’re looking at this listing then the chances are you know exactly how significant this suite is, Thomas Chippendale was simply put, the most important furniture designer in history, these chairs are the only Colonial examples I have ever seen and in Rosewood no less, they weigh roughly three times more than a standard dining chair of the same style and size, they are very substantial The chairs are late 19th century circa 1880-1900, they are of course based on the original 18th century examples, the carving is exquisitely executed and the chairs look sophisticated and elegant from all angles The suite has been sympathetically restored to include a deep clean, hand condition wax and hand polish, the seat covers have been left as they are, they are ok, I can have them reupholstered for the cost price to anything the new owners wish Literature Two chairs illustrated in Tabellenbuch Holztechnik, Hamburg, 2013, p. 271. Exhibited Ten chairs on loan to Birmingham Museums circa 1985-2010 and exhibited at Aston Hall, Birmingham, where photographed in situ.. Dimensions Height:- 93cm Width:- 56cm Depth:- 53cm Seat height:- 47cm Please note all measurements are taken at the widest point. Lot Essay These chairs are closely related to those in two recognised Chippendale commissions: Sir Gilbert Heathcote (d. 1785), 3rd Baronet for Normanton Hall, Rutland and William Crichton-Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries (4th Earl of Stair, 1699-1768) for Dumfries House, Ayrshire. THE RELATED CHAIRS The chairs are of identical decoration to the set of two armchairs and ten single chairs, circa 1765, formerly at Normanton Hall (1). In 1759, Sir Gilbert Heathcote (d. 1785), 3rd Baronet, succeeded to the vast inheritance established by his grandfather, also Gilbert, 1st Baronet (1652-1733), who was reputed to be ‘the richest commoner in England’ (2). The 3rd Baronet employed both Chippendale Senior and his son, Chippendale Junior, in the furnishing of his Palladian mansion, Normanton Hall in Rutland, and his London houses, 29 Grosvenor Square, London and Browne's House at North End, Fulham. Surviving Chippendale accounts, although incomplete, show that the firm was working periodically for members of the Heathcote family from 1768 to 1821. Most of the furniture listed in these accounts was intended for Browne’s House, although after 1798 when the family relinquished this residence some of the furniture was moved to Normanton Hall. The latter was sold in 1924, and any furniture not included in the Normanton Hall sale was taken to the Earl of Ancaster’s seat at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire. Chippendale’s earliest invoice for Sir Gilbert Heathcote records the acquisition in 1768 of ‘6 India Back and arm chairs Japand to imitate the Bamboe’, signifying how the family embraced the highly fashionable chinoiserie taste. Although the Normanton chairs cannot be conclusively identified in the extant Chippendale accounts, their form and ornamentation led Christopher Gilbert to suggest that they were possibly by Chippendale (3). The set of four mahogany chairs at Dumfries House have nearly-identical pagoda-form cresting rails and identical terminals but differ in the arrangement of the 'Chinese' paling in the backs and side panels. Although no documentary evidence for the Dumfries chairs survives, in their execution and sophisticated carving of the toprails, they are extremely close to Chippendale’s hand. Another near-set of closely related chairs is at Saltram House, Devon, where Chippendale worked between 1771-2; these dates are based on payments in John Parker's cash account book, and probably do not reflect a true picture of the entire commission as Parker often paid tradesmen by banker's draft (4). Comprising two armchairs and seven single chairs, this set, circa 1765, is made of padouk, and has been described by the National Trust as ‘Chinese Export’ (5). The set was returned to Saltram in 1951 having been accepted by H.M. Treasury in lieu of full payment of Death Duty from the Executors of Edmund Robert Parker, 4th Earl of Morley (1877-1951). Some of the chairs are currently on display in ‘The Chinese Chippendale Bedroom’. A further set of four padouk chairs of the Saltram pattern was almost certainly at Kenwood House, London; some of these are recorded in 18th century inventories drawn up by Lord Mansfield. This set was removed to Scone Palace, Perth, prior to the auction at Kenwood in 1922, and subsequently sold from ‘Scone Palace and Blairquhan: The Selected Contents of Two Great Scottish Houses’, Christie’s, London, 24 May 2007, lot 298. Another pair of padouk chairs of this model sold ‘The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller’, Christie’s, New York, 10 May 2018, lot 647 ($193,750 inc. premium). THE DESIGN Conceived in the Chinese manner expounded by William and John Halfpenny in Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1752), and Sir William Chambers in his Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils (1757), the pattern for this set of ‘Pagoda’ chairs relates to nine designs for ‘Chinese Chairs’ in the 1st edition of Chippendale’s Director (1754); the cabinet-maker describes these designs thus: Plates XXIII, XXIV and XXV are nine Chairs in the present Chinese manner, which I hope will improve that taste, or manner of work; it having yet never arrived to any perfection; doubtless it might be lost without feeling its beauty: as it admits of the greatest variety, I think it the most useful of any other. The sizes are all specified on the designs. The three last (No. XXV.) I hope will be well received, as there has been none like them yet made. The Georgian period witnessed the proliferation of such railed and pagoda-crested chairs in both the ‘picturesque’ Chinese tea pavilions of landscaped parks as well as in fashionable apartments hung with ‘India’ paper. The geometric ‘Chinese’ feet of these chairs are also found on a set of pedestals...

A Regency mahogany dining chair with carved paterae and reeded legs, carved in the style of Tatham. To be upholstered in the clients own material. Bespoke sizing, design adaptatio...

This set of two carved mahogany chairs was crafted by the inimitable and famed Thomas Chippendale. The yellow upholstered seats complement the deep mahogany beautifully, creating an ...

A George II carved mahogany two seater sofa with swept upholstered arms on cabriole legs carved with acanthus leaves on claw and ball feet. To be upholstered in the clients own mater...

The Dinton sofa is a fine polished mahogany regency design sofa/settee with classically polished turned and tapering legs terminating in brass castors, below a polished frieze with i...

A William Kent estate sofa with tapering square legs, acanthus and shell carvings and elegantly drawn scrolled roll arms. Finished with a burnished gold leaf. To be upholstered in th...

A finely carved and reeded mahogany stool, with a central panel of oak leaves and quatrefoil corner paterae, on brass castors. To be upholstered in ...

A Regency turned mahogany and brass mounted window seat on elongated brass castors. To be upholstered in the clients own material. Bespoke sizing, design adaptations and finishing av...

An important sabre legged, acanthus carved Regency mahogany library armchair, of generous proportions. Can be supplied in specialist aged leather as seen in the image or upholstered ...

Regency James Klismos chairs with turned front legs down to carved lion claw feet. Shown here with hand created tapestry seats and ebonised finish. To be upholstered in client’s own ...

A parcel gilt and ebonised stool with upholstered seat on partially reeded lotus leaf X-frame support. To be upholstered in the clients own material. Bespoke sizing, design adaptatio...

A fine English Hepplewhite design wheelback dining chair with a slightly raised fixed upholstered seat. To be upholstered in the client’s own material. Please note we are currently w...

A late Regency/early Victorian library open armchair with finely turned arm supports and turned and tapering front legs terminating in hand-cast brass castors. The armchair is classi...

A fine William Kent design banquette seat with carved under frieze supported by S scroll and scale decorated legs, united by floral swags centred by a Kentian face mask. To be uphols...

A finely carved George I design stool with foliate carved cabriole legs on claw and ball feet. To be upholstered in the client’s own material. Please note that we are currently worki...

A finely carved and reeded stool of square form, a central panel with gilt bronze mounts and quatrefoil corner paterae on brass castors. To be upholstered in the client’s own materia...

The Ince and Mayhew dining chairs are often considered as being the finest models of their type. Available as arms and singles in aged gesso, as in the image, or polished mahogany. ...

A fine carved teak garden bench in the manner of Henry Samuel. The back rest of oval form with radiating slats. The down scrolled arms onto a fluted frieze seat rail. The whole suppo...

A fine English Hepplewhite design dining chair with circle and ribbon decoration to the back. To be upholstered in the client’s own material. Please note we are currently working to...

A fine mid 18th Century design dining side chair in the Chinese Chippendale manner. To be upholstered in the clients own material. Please note that we are currently working to a 30-...

A fine and elegant English Robert Adam design dining chair with fully upholstered shaped back, serpentine rails and fine turned, tapered and fluted mahogany legs. To be upholstered i...

With a hint of the Grand Tour and a dash of Klismos style, a bow back dining chair of pleasing proportions. In mahogany with kick out back legs and simple tapered front legs. To be u...

A fine George II design banquet chair with classical rake to the back on acanthus and shell carved legs terminating in a carved hairy claw foot. To be finished in the clients own mat...

A fine country house saddle seated mahogany stool/window seat. The fine rollover slatted ends connecting to a strong slatted seat base. The stool supported upon eight legs with brass...

The Tennyson sofa is a fine country house Chesterfield design of generous proportions. The upholstered body of the sofa terminates upon finely turned polished mahogany bun feet with ...

An exceptional Georgian Camel back design carved teak slatted back garden bench. Exterior seat pads can be supplied if required. Seat pad upholstered in cli...

A most attractive and rare pair of high quality carved mahogany Chippendale period George III armchairs beautifully hand made with some fine and crisp details. This handsome pair of...

The Plitman banquet chair is a mahogany dining chair hand carved in the Chippendale style and upholstered with client’s own fabric. Bespoke sizing, d...

The Marle Club Sofa is a polished mahogany Regency design sofa/settee with fine classically polished tapering legs. Can be made to the client’s specific req...

A finely carved mahogany Gillows design library stool/ coffee table. Turned and stylised acanthus leaf decorated legs with a solid brass top block to leg...

A very fine Georgian mahogany library armchair of unusually generous proportions. Exceptional features of these chairs include the tapering Greek key...

A fine carved gilt-wood dressing stool in the manner of Robert Adam, with fluted and turned legs. To be upholstered in client’s own material. Bespo...

A fine Rococco design Gainsborough chair in the French taste. Shown in a bleached out finish but can be classically polished if required. To be upho...

A fine William Kent teak Rousham bench of flat back form profusely carved. This bench can also be supplied in mahogany and specialist painted or polished for internal use. Bespoke...