Armchair of mahogany, the frame carved with rococo motifs, the seat and back upholstered in a modern red damask. The design is close to plate XXII (right-hand image) of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (3rd ed., 1762).

Armchair, carved mahogany with rococo panel back with carved scrollwork frame. Padded arms with uprights carved with foliage. Seat frame carved with rococo scrollwork and foliage. Cabriole legs with scrolled French feet. Upholstery cover of modern red damask.

Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through Art Fund

Gift of Brigadier W.E. Clark, Elmstead House, Chislehurst, Kent, through the National Art Collection Fund along with other items in October 1946 (Registered Papers 45/233). An undated note in the Departmental records written by the Brigadier in the period preceding the gift, described the chair as follows, 'A large mahogany arm-chair about 1760 (one of eight from a house in Hertfordshire)....The pattern corresponds almost exactly with one shown in a plate dated 1759 of Chippendale's Director... I have had the chair upholstered in coloured needlework on a saxe blue similar in pattern to that shown in Chippendale's plate... The chair was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts (...in the Winter 1938/39)'. The Brigadier also states, ' I could tell you a wee bit more about the history of the chair, but should like to be more certain of its accuracy before I do so. I was originally offered a very large settee and eight chairs of the set. I took what I thought was the best chair'. A later entry in the Departmental records introduces the additional information that the Brigadier identified the armchair as part of a suite of one settee and eight armchairs which came from Gilston Park, near Hertford. This was presumably stated by the Brigadier in conversation as no written record of this could be found.
Gilston Park, formerly known as New Place, was bought in 1701 by Col. John Plumer, who was Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1689 and died in 1719. It then passed to his eldest son, William Plumer, who was MP in 1754 and died in 1767 at the age of 80. It passed to his eldest son, another William, who lived at New Place and married in 1761, Frances daughter of the 7th Viscount Falkland. It has been suggested that the suite was ordered by William Plumer on his marriage in 1761.
The chair was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 1938-1939 (Victorian Exhibition), Typescript Catalogue, No 75.

The Chippendale reference is to the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (1762, although plate dated 1759), plate XXI (right-hand image). It is also worth noting the overall similarity of this set of chairs to the 'French' chair illustrated on the 1754 trade card of Chippendale & Rannie, as held by Westminster City Libraries.

A settee of the same design is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. no. 57.93). This is currently upholsterested in damask. Its provenance was from Gilston Park, Hertfordshire, from when it had been sold by 1950. Gilston is presumably the house referrred to in Brigadier Clark's letter quoted above. Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Hertfordshire (2nd ed., rev. by Bridget Cherry, 1977), p. 146, records that Gilston Park was a large Early-Tudor-style mansion, built in 1852 to the designs of Philip Hardwick for John Hodgson. The Metropolitan Museum bought their settee from Phillips of Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

The Metropolitan Museum also has two armchairs of the same pattern, with upholstery in canvas-work embroidery (inv. no. 64.101985 and 64.101986, from the collection give by Judge Irwin Untermeyer). The provenance of those two chairs is given as Lord Woolavington, Lavington Park, Sussex (until 1936, when they were sold at Sotheby's, London, 20 November 1936, lot 100). James Buchanan, 1st Baron Woolavington (1849-1935), known as Sir James Buchanan Bt from 1920to 1922 was a Canadian born businessman, philanthropist and racehorse owner. Lavington Park, East Lavington, East Sussex, was and early house, re-built 1790-94 for John Sargent MP and acquired by James Buchanan in about 1900. He extended the house, which remained in the family until his death in 1936. He was best known as a collector of sporting pictures and the 1925 and 1926 articles on the house in Country Life show little of the interiors and give no sight of this set of seat furniture.

Another armchairchair, of the same design, was sold in 1966 or 1967 and illustrated in James Storm, 'With Prejudice. Recent Furniture Sales at Christie's', in Antique Collecting, February 1987, pp. 5-9. This refers to the armchairs and settee in the Metropolitan Museum collections.

In 2018 a pair of chairs of somewhat similar, but simplified design, were with the London dealer Patrick Sandberg, Kensington Church Street. The text offered with the chairs suggested that they might be to a design by Robert Manwaring, whose Cabinet and Chair-Maker's Real Friend and Companion was published in 1765.

In 2019 an armchair from the set was offered for sale by Ronald Phillips, London, and published in their selling exhibition 'The Legacy of Thomas Chippendale', published in the catalogue of the exhibition as no. 6, pp. 36-39.

W.47-1946