A Fine and Rare George II Period Carved Mahogany Library Armchair

English, ca. 1755

Attributed to Paul Saunders

The padded back with serpentine top rail, above a serpentine padded seat, the padded armrests on scrolled supports carved with C-scroll cabochons and foliage, with C-scroll, acanthus, trellis and rockwork carved shaped seatrails, on conformingly-carved cabriole legs with scrolled feet and recessed castors.

This chair shows all the hallmarks of Great English Cabinetmaking and is a Masterclass of the exquisite quality of craftsmanship available in the mid 18th century. Incorporate great design, and the highest quality of materials and the result is a true masterpiece for its period. It is therefore needless to say that a chair like this must have been part of an important commission demanding the highest standard and in today’s market a rare survival.

So far one other chair of this model has been discovered and was part of the highly important collection of Gerald Hochschild, sold by Sotheby’s London, 1 December 1978, lot 38. And subsequently bought by the famous London dealers Mallett and Sons.

Paul Saunders furniture maker (1722 – 1771)

Paul Saunders was one of the most important suppliers of fashionable upholstered furniture of the 1750s and 1760s, as well as holding the position Tapestry Maker to His Majesty George III from 1757. Around 1751 he formed an association and partnership with George Smith Bradshaw, and possibly also his brother William Bradshaw, already established and with an impressive clientele. Based around Carlisle House, Soho Square and 59 Greek Street, Saunders established a substantial workshop employing as many as 37 workmen. Primarily upholsterers and cabinet-makers, the company also supplied tapestries for Holkham and Petworth. Throughout his career Saunders enjoyed the patronage of many of the most high profile clients both in London and the country. Early in his partnership he was employed at Mansion House and from 1755-58 at Holkham, supplying furniture, upholstery fabric and bed furniture for the 1st Earl of Leicester. He appears to have worked for the Earl and Countess of Egremont at Petworth over a period of nearly twenty years from as early as 1748, and from 1765 until his death in 1771 he carried out work for the Duke of Bedford at both Woburn and at Bedford House, London. He worked for Sir John Griffin Griffin at Audley End, Essex from 1765 where his fellow cabinet-makers John Gordon and Richard Taitt were also later employed.

Provenance

Moss Harris, London, England

Private collection, England

Literature

Moss Harris, A catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and works of Decorative Art, Volume 2 , p 204. (Full page Image)

L. Synge, Mallett’s Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 123, fig. 138 (illustrated behind the Chippendale Combe Abbey desk)