A Pair of George III Giltwood Bergeres Atrributed to Francois Herve and Probably Supplied by Henry Holland.
The chairs with husk and guilloche carved headrails, padded arms supported on scrolling 'C' scroll uprights carved with trailing bell flowers. The seat rail centred by fluted tablets flanked by roundels on tapering turned and fluted legs with toupie feet.
It is possible that the chairs were designed by the Panton Street marchand mercier Guillaume Gaubert , who served as a designer of 'Ornamental Furniture' to George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) in the contemporary embellishment of his Piccadilly mansion Carlton House. The latter's furnishings were described at thetime by Horace Walpole, as being 'delicate and new' and 'rather classic than French' ( see D. Stroud, Henry Holland, 1966 p.64). In particular Gaubert supplied designs to be executed by the émigré menuisier François Hervé (d.1796) of John Street, who advertised himself as a 'cabriole chairmaker'. He is also documented in the early 1780s as being employed by John Spencer's sister Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (d.1806) and her husband William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (d.1811).
English, Circa 1791
Supplied to George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) either for Spencer House, London, or Althorp, Northamptonshire;
thence by descent to John Poyntz, 5th Earl Spencer (1835-1910) at Althorp, where they are recorded in the Red Drawing Room in 1902, and in 1909;
thence by descent to Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975) at Spencer House, where they are recorded in the Rubens Room and Ante Room, before being returned to Althorp circa 1926 and thence by descent.
H. Avray Tipping, Althorp II, Country Life, 18 June 1921, p. 756, fig. 2, one bergere photographed in the Sir Joshua Reynolds Room;
Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975), Althorp, Furniture, Vol. I, circa 1937 and later;
J. Friedman, Spencer House, Chronicle of a great London mansion, London, 1993, p.138, ill.112, one bergere in 1926 in the Music Room, and p.272, ill.240, one bergere in 1926 in Lady Spencer's Dressing Room;
S. Weber Soros ed., James "Athenian" Stuart; The Rediscovery of Antiquity, New Haven and London, 2006, p.439, fig.10-40.
 "A Pair of George III Giltwood Bergeres Atrributed to Francois Herve and Probably Supplied by Henry Holland.")
