Reference: 7851178

Intended for a Breakfast Parlour, the four chairs are elegantly japanned in the 'Etruscan' manner promoted by both Robert Adam and Josiah Wedgwood in the 1760's.

The richly fretted frames are decorated in earthen red and white on a black ground to resemble Wedgewood's popular Etruscan style vases. Inspired by the antique vases which were illustrated in volumes such as Antiquités étrusques, grecques et romaines (1766-67) published by the connoisseur Sir William Hamilton, and soon after acquired from Hamilton by the British Museum.

It is interesting to note that the palm-wreathed seat-rails are filigreed with a Grecian ribbon-guilloche inspired by the borders framing Hamilton's engravings. Also, the central octagon on the chair back is derived from Robert Wood's engravings from the Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, published in 1753.

English, Circa 1790

This set of chairs is closely related to a set of parlour chairs designed by Robert Adam for the breakfast room at Osterley Park in the mid 1770's. This room is styled as a Roman 'Columbarium' or vase-chamber and illustrates Homer's history of the Fall of Troy.