Each with a serpentine crest rail with acanthus carving above a finely pierced, interlaced vase-shaped splat centred by pendant leaf carving, the moulded stiles flanking a removable slip seat covered in associated eighteenth-century floral needlework worked in petit point and gros point. The shaped seat rails are carved at the centre with a foliate cartouche and raised on acanthus-carved cabriole forelegs terminating in claw-and-ball feet, with splayed rear legs.

The pierced backs relate closely to chair-back designs illustrated on plates XIII and XIV of the first edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, published in 1754.¹ The claw-and-ball feet are consistent with English chairmaking of circa 1760 and earlier.

Each seat frame incorporates two longitudinal wooden rails running between the front and rear seat rails beneath the removable slip seat. Present throughout the set and constructed consistently with the frames, these rails appear original. They act as bearers for the seat trays, distributing weight through the frame and limiting deflection and wear around the seat opening.

The set was lent to the White House during the 1970s, and one chair was photographed in the Map Room in 1971. Contemporary correspondence from the White House Office of the Curator records the loan and identifies the chair in the room.² The same chair is illustrated in a 1970s edition of The White House: An Historic Guide.³

I love the improbable journey these chairs have made—from England to the American South, through the White House, and now to Midtown Manhattan. The fact that they’re beautifully executed doesn’t hurt.

PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, England, 23 May 1963, lot 73;
With Arthur Brett & Sons Ltd., Norwich, England;
With Fowler Brothers, Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, October 1964;
Mr. and Mrs. Levon C. Register, Signal Mountain, Tennessee, United States;
Private collection, Kentucky, United States.