One of the chairs in profile, showing the elegant proportions of the chairs and fine shape of the carved cabriole front and rear legs.
A PAIR OF GEORGE III WALNUT ARMCHAIRS ATTRIBUTED TO PAUL SAUNDERS
W: 83 cm
D: 53 cm
Further images
Provenance
Richard Courtney Ltd.
Private Collection: Stockholm, Sweden
Exhibitions
Richard Courtney, Grosvenor House Fine Art & Antiques Fair, London, 1980
Literature
Christie’s, Furniture, Silver and Porcelain from Longleat (June 2002), lots 338
Coleridge, A. ‘Some Mid-Georgian Cabinet-Makers at Holkham’, Apollo, February 1964, p. 122-8
Goodman, Sharon. ‘The 9th Earl of Lincoln (1720-1794) and the refurbishment of Exchequer House, 10 Downing Street’, The British Art Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, Winter 2017, pp. 3-7
Jackson-Stops, Gervase, ‘The Furniture at Petworth’, Apollo (May 1977), Vol. 105, No. 183, pp. 358-66
COMPARE
Pair of armchairs supplied by Saunders to the 3rd Viscount Weymouth, later 1st Marquess of Bath (1734-1796), for Longleat, Bath, sold Christie’s, 14th June 2002, £81,260 GBP
‘10 Elbow / chairs with carved and gilt / frames’ supplied by Saunders to the 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759) for Holkham Hall, Leicester, illus.Coleridge, A. ‘Some Mid-Georgian Cabinet-Makers at Holkham’, APOLLO, February 1964, p. 123, fig. 2
Armchairs from the suite attributed to Saunders, supplied to 1st Earl of Powis for Powis Castle (NT 1181050.1-3)
‘8 smaller French Elbow chairs...£40’, supplied by Saunders to the 2nd Earl of Egremont for Petworth House, Sussex (NT 485400.1-7)
The present chairs are of the same model as those supplied by Paul Saunders to the 3rd Viscount Weymouth, later 1st Marquess of Bath (1734-1796), for Longleat, part of a suite of eight armchairs and two settees, covered by payments to Saunders of £556 15s. 0d. in November 1757 and £300. 0s. 0d. in November 1759, and to the 1st Earl of Leicester for Holkham Hall, part of a suite of ‘10 Elbow / chairs with carved and gilt / frames’ for which ‘Mr. Saunders’ charged £74. 0s. 4d. on 11th June 1757.1
Like the Longleat and Holkham chairs, the present chairs have serpentine rectangular backs and out-pointing shaped arms carved on the terms with scrolls and on the supports with upspringing acanthus. The present chairs bear particular resemblance to the Longleat examples which do not feature carved rails and are raised on cabriole legs terminating in feet scrolled in the manner as the present chairs.
The present armchairs compare particularly with the suite of eight armchairs likely made by Saunders for the 2nd Earl of Egremont for Petworth House, Sussex (NT 485400.1-7), associated with the 1763 bill to the Earl’s executors detailing ‘8 smaller French Elbow chairs...£40’.2 The pair and the set feature the same shell-issuing-acanthus-leaf carving on the knees, in addition to upspringing acanthus on the arm supports as seen before. Like the Petworth chairs, the present examples are constructed in walnut.
Saunders was one of the most fashionable upholders of the 1750s and 1760s, enjoying the patronage of the grandest aristocratic taste-makers of the mid eighteenth century as well as Royal appointment from October 1757 as ‘Yeoman Arras Worker to the Great Wardrobe’, and from May 1761 as ‘Yeoman Tapestry Taylor’, positions which he held concurrently until his death in 1771.
In addition to Longleat, Holkham and Petworth, he worked at Uppark House and Woburn Abbey and Bedford House. He was employed in the furnishing of Mansion House in London and Hagley Hall and Audley End. Other clients included the Dukes of Cumberland, Norfolk and Northumberland and the Earls Spencer, Temple and of Scarborough, Albemarle and Darlington, Viscount Irwin and Sir Orlando Bridgeman. The present chairs will have been supplied to one of Saunders’ aristocratic clients, possibly one those aforementioned.3
1 Christie’s, Furniture, Silver and Porcelain from Longleat (June 2002), 14 June 2002, lot 338, GBP 81,260; A. Coleridge, ‘Some Mid-Georgian Cabinet-Makers at Holkham’, Apollo, February 1964, p. 123, fig. 2
2 Gervase Jackson-Stops, ‘The furniture at Petworth’, Apollo, 105.183 (1977), pp. 358-66
3 Beard and Gilbert, Dictionary (1986), pp. 782-5