Provenance:
Probably part of the suite supplied to Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1745-1805)
Phillips, London, Fine English and Continental Furniture, Carpets, Tapestries and Works of Art, 9 February 1999, Lot 98 (with catalog)
James Hepworth, London, 1999 (with copy of invoice)

Note:
This pair of armchairs are probably part of the only known Royal commission executed by Thomas Chippendale. It originally consisted of a set of eight armchairs and two sofas followed by the later addition of thirteen side chairs and two bergères probably supplied to Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1743-1805), younger brother of George III. Two armchairs, seven side chairs, the sofas and the bergères remain in the Royal Collection and are at Clarence House, London (RCIN 100201, RCIN 100202, RCIN 100204, RCIN 100205).

Although no specific records have surfaced in the Royal Archives, a surviving portion of the Duke of Gloucester’s bank account from 1764-1766 details payments to Chippendale that totaled £134 15s 6d. Though this date is too early to refer to this suite, it does confirm a pre-existing relationship. This commission is very likely the one Chippendale mentions in his 1767 letter to Sir Roland Winn in the apparently universal way of all craftsmen rationalizing why their work was delayed as he writes he…'had a great quantity of business…mostly for the Royal Family' (A. Bowett and J. Lomax, Thomas Chippendale 1718-1779 A Celebration of Craftsmanship and Design, Catalogue of the Tercentenary Exhibition, Leeds City Museum, 2018, p. 130).

Stylistically, the chairs reflect the French fashioned chairs supplied to Chippendale’s documented commissions from the early 1770s. Although the distinctive arched handholds were almost a leitmotif for Chippendale chairs, the armchairs in the set of seat furniture supplied to Sir Penistone Lamb for the Saloon at Brocket Hall around 1773 are the most closely related to the present lot, featuring guilloche backs surmounted with a medallion and a laurel leaf carved apron (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale Vol. II, London, 1978, p. 109, fig. 186).

The dispersal of this suite from the Duke of Gloucester presumably occurred after his death in 1805 when his estate went to his two children, William Frederick and Sophia Matilda. The part of the suite in the Royal Collection presumably went to George IV as they have his inventory brand. As the other three pairs of chairs are not accounted for in the entries for the suite at the Royal Collection, they were presumably kept by Gloucester’s descendants, fulfilling his command to bequeath his property to ‘share and share alike.’ Another pair of identical armchairs also lacking the inventory brand and presumably from this original set were sold anonymously at Sotheby’s, London, 27 September 2012, lot 135 (£73,250); the whereabouts of the remaining pair is currently unknown.