Thomas Moore
Head of Department
Lot 48TP
A George III mahogany hall settee
25 October 2017, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £173,000 inc. premium
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A George III mahogany hall settee
Circa 1760, the shaped foliate carved channelled and panelled back surmounted by a central stylised shell cresting, with scroll carved arm supports and scrolled channelled terminals with foliate collars, above a fluted seat frame, on six scrolled corbel legs applied with bead-and-reel mouldings and carved with scrolled acanthus, terminating in scroll feet, 125cm wide.
Footnotes
Provenance
Spains Hall, Finchingfield, Essex and thence by descent.
Please refer to the footnote for lot 51 for further information regarding this provenance.
The fluted seat frame, shaped panelled back, curving scroll-carved arm supports and twinned front legs on the present lot are all characteristics of a hall settee, dated circa 1760 and attributed to William and John Linnell, which sold Sotheby's, London, Pelham: The Public and the Private, 8 March 2016, lot 59. Also a pair of similar hall chairs sold Christie's, London, Simon Sainsbury: The Creation of an English Arcadia, 18 June 2008, lot 10. This group of aforementioned hall furniture was most likely originally supplied to either Edwin Lascelles (d. 1791) for Harewood House in Yorkshire or to David Lascelles (d. 1784) for Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire.
A serving table, also attributable to William Linnell (c. 1703-63), with similar bead-and-reel moulded and acanthus carved scrolled corbel legs to the offered model previously formed part of the renowned Samuel Messer collection of English furniture. While a drawing for a serving table by William Ince and John Mayhew, incorporates comparable scrolled channelled twin front legs and a stylised foliate sprig or cresting to those on the present model, The Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, pl. XI.
Also a pair of hall benches supplied to William Drake at Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire by John Linnell (1729-96), which is based upon one of the latter's designs (dated 1767), has a related stylised foliate cresting surmounting its toprail.
Literature
H. Hayward, The Drawings of John Linnell in the Victoria and Albert Museum
H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980.
Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, complied by E. White, 2000, Suffolk, p. 279.