Armchair, ca. 1765, English

Mahogany armchair with trellis back, open arms and square sections legs. Open back made from sections of solid wood, tenoned together to form a 'Chinese' trellis pattern. The top rail carved with floral scrolls. Shaped arms pierced at the point of junction between horizontal and upright member. Concave seat upholstered in striped moire silk of yellow, green and pink. Beech chair rails. Plain legs of square section with pierced brackets at point of junction with rails.

Bequeathed by C. D. Rotch

Bequeathed by Claude Rotch (1962)
A pair of armchairs of closely similar, but slightly more elaborate design, was featured on the cover of the catalogue of Mallett & son, New Bond Street, in 1956.

A set of armchairs that is very close to this design, but not identical, is in the Drawing Room at Firle Place, Sussex. The backs are similarly delicate and those armchairs have piercings at the base of the arm supports, rather than at the top, as here. The seats on that set are flat, not dished. The joints of the openwork back are mitred and secured by small slips of wood inserted into a saw-cut made through the outer angle of the joint (a veneer-keyed mitre).

See: Connoisseur Vol CXXXVI October 1955 p.81 p.3 and Chrysler Collection 6th May 1960 Sotheby's Parke Bernet. New York Lot 371 ill. from Bramshill Hants.
A similar version is in the Metropolitan Museum New York.

W.46-1962