A very fine George III period armchair, of well-shaped bergere outline and rare generous proportions, attributed to Thomas Chippendale, England, circa 1775.

Attribution

The present bergère, with its elegantly curved back, serpentine seat, plain legs and neo-classical detailing, can be attributed to the St Martin's Lane workshops of Thomas Chippendale, based on its idiosyncratic constructional features and similarities to a suite of furniture supplied by Chippendale and his son, Thomas Chippendale Junior to Ninian Home (1732-95) for the dining room at Paxton House, Berwickshire, circa 1774-6, thus belonging to Chippendale's post-Director work, epitomised in the restrained style of the Paxton commission. The leg pattern of this armchair in particular features on the cellaret, sideboard, three window seats and a set of four bergères supplied for the dining room, where they are still preserved. (C Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, pp, 79, 99, 193 & 215, pls. 124, 162, 351 & 391).

This chair’s square tapered front legs faced with hollow panels, crisply carved with husk trails, also conform to a basic pattern used by Thomas Chippendale on a set of dining chairs, supplied to the Earl of Shelburne for his London house on Berkeley Square, later called Lansdowne House, as part of a commission fulfilled between 1768 - 76, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (above, right). Another example of nearly identical decoration is found on a serving table, formerly in the collection of Geoffrey Blackwell, illustrated in the tercentenary catalogue Ronald Phillips – The Legacy of Thomas Chippendale, 2018, p. 138-9 (above, left).

The decorative treatment of the armrests of the present bergère is identical to a pair of open armchairs previously in our collection and currently with Godson & Coles (below, middle), and is virtually identical to the Garrick (Adelphi) armchairs and to the Hindman/Hotspur bergère (below, right), while the same elements of Chippendale’s design vocabulary may be seen on the Harewood bergères and the armchairs (below, left), supplied to Sir Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne, for the Drawing Room at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire.

Overall proportions and line of the present armchair’s curved back correspond to other documented bergères from Chippendale’s workshop, while the presence of the V-shaped cramp-cuts to the seat rails (below, left), an idiosyncratic constructional feature of Chippendale’s technique, further reinforce the attribution. Identical cramp-cuts can be found on the majority of Chippendale’s seat furniture (below, right).