A REGENCY OAK KLISMOS ARMCHAIR, CIRCA 1815

A REGENCY OAK KLISMOS ARMCHAIRCIRCA 1815, ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE OAKLEY, AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS HOPEWith a curved bar toprail and scrolled,anthemion-carved splat, the arms with lion-headed dolphin supports, and with a blue suede cushion, on tapering turned and reeded legs headed by roundel blocks86cm high, 63cm wide, 72cm deepThe armchair design is based on Thomas Hope’s pattern, witharms supported by sphinxes, issued in Household Furniture and Decoration,1807, pl. XI, and was popularised further by George Smith in A Collection ofDesigns for Household Furniture and Decoration (1808) featuring mermaid armsupports.A set of closely related chairs, with scrolled arm supportsand turned, reeded legs, was supplied to Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquessof Bath (d.1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire, by the fashionable Londonfurniture-maker George Oakley, invoiced in October 1812. They too drew onantiquarian taste being made of oak and were furnished with leather squabcushions. A pair of chairs from the set was sold from Longleat, Christie’s,London, 14 June 2002, lot 361. Another, of almost identical pattern to thepresent lot but simulated as rosewood was sold from the important collection ofWilfrid Evill, Sotheby’s, London, 12 July 1963, lot 87, and again from theEvill/Frost collection, Sotheby’s, London, part III, 16 June 2011, lot 335.Another, in oak (presumably the pair to the present lot) was sold from thecollection of Gayfryd Steinberg, Stair, New York, 20 October 2021, lot 5.