The shaped paper-scroll crest rail above a pierced vase-shaped splat, the upholstered seat raised on four cabriole legs boldly carved at the knees with acanthus and terminating in claw-and-ball feet. Unusually, the rear legs are fully carved and finished. The distinctive paper-scroll crest relates to contemporary mahogany chairs illustrated in The Dictionary of English Furniture, including examples at Ammerdown House and formerly in the S. B. Joel Collection.¹

The attribution to Giles Grendey is supported by comparisons with documented and attributed furniture from his workshop, including the mahogany seating at Longford Castle, Wiltshire,² and labelled chairs with related pierced splats and carved knees.³ Giles Grendey (1693–1780) was one of the leading London cabinetmakers and chairmakers of the second quarter of the eighteenth century, working from St John’s Square, Clerkenwell. His workshop produced furniture for both the English market and export, and is particularly well documented through surviving trade labels and important recorded commissions. An armchair of the same model is recorded in the Great Gallery at Mellerstain House, Scotland, in a photograph published in Country Life in 1915.⁴

For me, the attraction here was as much sculptural as practical. Wildly comfortable and thoroughly “sittable,” it’s a chair that’s as interesting to look at as it is to use.

PROVENANCE
With M. Ford Creech Antiques, Memphis, Tennessee, United States;
With Hyde Park Antiques, New York, United States;
Private Collection, New York, United States.