A Set of Four George III Armchairs By Gillows of Lancaster
Having most unusual heart shaped backs with a central splat of carved rising acanthus leaves, moulded arms and standing on fluted, square tapering legs united by a stretcher. The chairs being of fine faded colour and excellent quality.
Known as Wyatt's Pattern Chairs, the design dates to 1782. The name Wyatt refers to the architects Samuel and James, with whom Robert Gillow was great friends, an alliance that brought numerous important commissions for furnishing country houses. This collaboration raised Gillows' standard of design to new levels.
At this time the taste and economics of furniture design were changing. The magnificent carved and gilded pieces of the Chippendale period were beginning to seem costly, outmoded and ponderous. Wyatt-Gillow furniture was more modern in the sense of being fine but not wildly luxurious.
The influence of the Wyatts was of the greatest importance during the late Eighteenth century. While Robert Adam designed furniture tended to be encrusted with ornament and gilding to the detriment of its line, the Wyatts, famous for the restraint of their interiors, used the minimum of ornament, gilding and inlay, concentrating instead on the beauty of fine woods and line and form.
As Lindsay Boynton states in Gillow Furniture Designs, this "is unquestionably the hallmark of the best Gillow furniture of the last quarter of the Eighteenth century".
English, Circa 1780
Gillow Furniture Designs by Lindsay Boynton, Figure 275.
 "Two from a set of four Georgian 'Gillows' armchairs")
