SOLD - A Pair of George II Burr Walnut Armchairs
Height: 40" 102cm
Width: 33" 84cm
Depth: 25" 65cm
A pair of George II walnut open armchairs with shaped solid back splat and out-scrolling arms, with contemporary needlework drop-in seats, the legs headed by the Astley family crest of feathers and a ducal coronet, standing on carved hairy paw feet.
English, Circa 1730
Supplied to either Sir Philip Astley, 2nd Bt. (d. 1739) or Sir Jacob Astley, 3rd Bt. (1760) for Melton Constable, Norfolk.
Thence by descent at Melton Constable with the Barons Hastings, until sold with the house in 1948.
These heraldic 'parlour' or banqueting chairs, with their serpentined legs terminating in bacchic lion paws, are designed in the George II 'antique' manner. The knees are carved with ermine-banded and acanthus-wrapped cartouches, surmounted with ducal coronets and ostrich plumes in celebration of the Astley family's chivalric achievements. This pair is part of a set possibly ordered by Sir Philip Astley, 2nd Baronet (d.1739) or his son Sir Jacob Astley, 3rd Baronet (d.1760), and inherited by descent with the Barons Hastings of Melton Constable, Norfolk. The 3rd Baronet married an heiress of the ancient Barony of Hastings, which had fallen into abeyance. His great grandson, Jacob Astley succeeded in resurrecting the peerage in 1841 when he became the 16th Baron Hastings.
There may be a connection between these chairs and a suite of George II drawing-room chairs embroidered with flower-framed 'Astley' vignettes, illustrating tournament scenes featuring Sir John Astley (d.1484) of Patshull, Staffordshire, who was created a Knight of the Garter by King Edward VI. These scenes are based on a panel painting copied from the illuminated 'Hastings' manuscript now in the British Museum. The painting and the chairs once belonged to the Astley Corbett family of Eversley, Wiltshire, as documented in C. Hussey, Needlework Furniture at Melton Constable, Country Life, 6 October 1928, pp. 478-480, ill. Fig. 6.
A description of the suite to which this pair of chairs belongs is described in G. and H. Harding's Catalogue of the Ornamental Furniture, Works of Art, and Porcelain at Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk, London, 1901 (privately printed), p.8, as follows:
SUITE: consisting of six arm-chairs, twenty-four dining chairs; the frames covered with veneer of burr-walnut, shaped shield backs, the legs curved, the upper part carved with the Astley crest. Claw feet. Upholstered in crimson morocco.
Mentioned in an inventory made in 1799.
 "A Pair of George II Burr Walnut Armchairs")
