A GEORGE III IRISH MAHOGANY HALL CHAIR IN THE...

A GEORGE III IRISH MAHOGANY HALL CHAIR

IN THE MANNER OF KATHERINE NAISH AND JOHN RUSSELL, C.1770

with a pierced shield shaped back with a central painted armorial crest for Ponsonby, Earl of Bessborough, County Kilkenny above a dished seat and chamfered square legs, together with a George III oak hall chair, possibly Irish, the circular back with a similar painted armorial, above a solid seat and sabre legs (2)

Catalogue Note

The two painted crests are for Ponsonby, Earl of Bessborough, County Kilkenny.

The form of the first chair is similar to a set in the Royal Collection Trust now found in the porch of Clarence House (RCIN 89). These were originally supplied for the Hall of the Queen's House between 1766 and 1772-3 together with another set supplied for the Salon Room at Kew by John Russell which were to 'the same pattern as those in the Hall at the Queen's House'.

Another set of four chairs, to the same design, were supplied by Robert Campbell to Neiborow Palace, near Warsaw, around 1775 when it was owned by the Radziwillow family. Please see Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, pp.21 and 133 illus. 184.