The cabochon enclosed by c-scrolls is characteristic of a large proportion of the seat furniture associated with the workshop of Paul Saunders. It appears on the set of ‘12 chairs, mahog. frames / Gilt’ and ‘10 Elbow / chairs with carved and gilt / frames’ supplied in 1757 to the 1^st Earl of Leicester for Holkham Hall, for which ‘Mr. Saunders’ on 11^th June charged £39. 10s. 3d. and £41. 18s., and notably on the ‘2 large sophas’ in the Gallery, which he supplied for £74. 4d.[1]

The leg pattern appears on the suite of at least eight armchairs and two settees supplied to the 3^rd Viscount Weymouth for Longleat, most probably included in the unspecified payments to Saunders of £556. 15s. in November 1757 and £300 in November 1759 recorded in the viscount’s Drummonds account.[2] These likely also covered the library table, en suite to the seat furniture, which is likewise carved with cabochons and c-scrolls.

The motif is even represented on the famous suite of parcel-gilt seat furniture supplied to Grimsthorpe Castle. Elements of this remain at the house, and dispersed articles have taken their places in the collections of Irwin Untermyer and Ann and Gordon Getty and been extensively documented.[3]

The triple fluting of the legs and the scrolled toes practically confirm Saunders’ authorship, being features of the above-mentioned suites and others supplied to Holkham and Lowther Castle.[4] The shaped apron on serpentine rails carved with a central motif – often a wheatsheaf or shell – flanked by stylised acanthus leaf flourishes is likewise a feature of the Saunders group.[5]  

A settee with identical carved decoration sold Christie’s, Jasper Conran: The Collection Part I, 14 September 2021, lot 176, GBP 93,750. A pair of chairs with the same carving, formerly in the collection of Sir Martyn Beckett, Bt., M.C., sold Sotheby’s, London, 18 November 2008, lot 348, GBP 94,850 and again Sotheby’s, New York, 16 October 2009, lot 135, USD 134,500.