Pair of George III Open Armchairs Attributed to Mayhew and Ince
£6,500
A fine and rare pair of George III giltwood open armchairs attributed to Mayhew and Ince, each with upholstered, curved, panelled back continuing to form the padded arms with open scroll arm supports leading down to the serpentine-fronted seat, and raised on fluted tapering baluster legs
These chairs are of an identical model and size to a set in the collection of the collection of the Earls of derby at Knowsley, where they were almost certainly supplied by Mayhew and Ince circa 1775. A bill survives from the firm from that year for other furniture that remains in the collection, but no extant bill survives for the set of chairs.
The link with a known Mayhew collection is reinforced by the design of the chairs. A set of chairs sold from Bramshill, Hampshire, Christie’s, 27 April 1956, lot 99 (Country Life, 11 July 1903) has a very similar type of very high arm combined with a characteristic Mayhew panelled leg. The panelled leg on the Bramshill chairs relates very closely to those on chairs supplied to the Earl of Darnley at Cobham Hall, Kent, one of the firm’s most enduring clients (C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince: The Idlest Ostentation’, Furniture History, 1990, pp. 27-29).
A set four four chairs of an identical model, though later painted, were sold Christie’s Important English Furniture, 10th April 2003 lot 128. (Here illustrated)
