Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster, circa 1770

Each with three serpentine pierced horizontal splats flanked by turned uprights above a padded white silk damask upholstered drop-in seat, on bamboo-turned legs joined by stretchers.

Height 36 inches (91.4 cm), width 20 inches (50.8 cm), depth 16 1/2 inches (41.9 cm).

Literature

Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1849m Woodbridge, 2008, vol. 1, pg. 155-156, pls. 103-105.

The present set of chairs closely relates to two documented Gillows of Lancaster and London designs featuring shaped horizontal splats. In 1764, Richard Gillow wrote to Wilson & Brown of the Strand requesting a sketch of similar examples, describing "very neat chairs...with ribs fix'd level back to back...[and] seats made hollow before upholstered." A related design, illustrated in December 1769 for Captian o=John Hasell of the East India Company, features cluster-column legs. Another watercolor in the Gillow archive depicts a near-identical model with a solid seat and bamboo-turned legs. Known as "fiddle-back" chairs, the type takes its name from the open fret splats resembling the forms of violins. This set further reatins finely made, original semi-circular mahogany front corner blcoks, a characteristic feature of this firm's construction during the period.