A George III Giltwood Sofa in the Manner of Francois Hervé - Apter-Fredericks Antique George III Furniture Dealer

Having a shaped back with a cartouche to the centre and trailing foliage leading to the shaped arms. The settee supported on eight legs, the front four displaying shaped foliate legs headed by rosettes and beaded collars on turned feet, with carved foliage to the frieze and to the show-wood rail between each leg. The interior side of the back rail inscribed in black ink '3875 Hubberd.'

There are a number of extant pieces with similar inscriptions and ornament which suggest that they originate from the same workshop.

A pair of chairs inscribed '3071 Hubberd'' was likely made en suite with the present settee (Sold Christies London, November 17, 1983, lot 49.) Another settee with similar decoration is inscribed on the inner back seat rail with a four-digit number and signed Hervé.
This name probably refers to François Hervé (fl. 1781-1796) who is recorded at 32 Johns Street, off Tottenham Court Road, and appears to have formerly been in partnership with John Meschain at the same address. Hervé, who was presumably of French origin, is known to have worked for a number of fashionable patrons, including the Prince of Wales, Earl Spencer and the Duke of Devonshire, as Beard and Gilbert remark, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 423-424, 'his style is now best represented by the documented pieces at Chatsworth where it can be seen as a light, elegant and adroit mixture of English and French detail', a statement that can be clearly related to the present settee; see Burlington Magazine, June 1980, 'A Neoclassical episode at Chatsworth', Ivan Hall, pp. 400-414. He is also known to have worked in conjunction with several leading architects including Henry Holland, John Carr and James Wyatt at Heveningham Hall. A number of pieces survive with this latter provenance and are conceived in a similar fashion with delicately carved gilded detail.