Apter-Fredericks

A George II Carved Walnut Armchair

The central vase shaped splat with a carved shell on a further shell and the very nice detail of a carved volute on each side of the splat. To each side, the uprights follow the shape of the splat and connect with the shepherd's crook arms. The chair has a drop in seat upholstered in green silk velvet, framed by a serpentine front seat rail carved with a shell and foliage and supported on cabriole legs carved with 'C' scrolls foliage to the knees and claw and ball feet.

English, Circa 1735

This important armchair is comparable to a chair once owned by Percival Griffiths and subsequently by J.S.Sykes; illustrated in at least three of R.W Symonds' books. The two chairs are so similar that, considering that there is carving missing from the Griffiths chair, one has to wonder whether, if Symonds had known about this chair, would it have been the chair to be illustrated in his books?

The chair can also be compared to a card table by the same maker, which has the same shell in the frieze and the same carving to the knee. The table is illustrated in Macquoid's History of English Furniture.

English Furniture from Charles II to George II By Symonds. Fig 96 page 122
Old English & Walnut Furniture by Symonds, plate XIX.
Masterpieces of English Furniture & Clocks Fig 3
The History of English Furniture, the Age of Walnut, by Percy Macquoid, page 231, fig 215.

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