A SET OF TWENTY-FOUR BEECHWOOD DINING CHAIRS BY CHARLES MELLIER & CO.

A SET OF TWENTY-FOUR BEECHWOOD DINING CHAIRS BY CHARLES MELLIER & CO.

IN LOUIS XVI STYLE, LATE 19TH CENTURY

each with a padded back and seat, covered with brass studded tan leather, the moulded frames carved with guilloche borders and a grapevine, on flower and leaf decorated cabriole legs, some chairs with castors to the front legs, the back rail with branded maker's stamp 'C. Mellier & Co. Margaret St. W.' (24)

Provenance

Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918) Halton House, Buckinghamshire

Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942)

Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009)

The Trustees of Exbury House

Catalogue Note

The Anglo-French firm of Charles Mellier & Company was founded by Charles Mellier in 1868. Mellier originally worked for George Alphonse Monbro but took over the business and despite the award winning reputation of Monbro, he decided to rename the firm: 'C. Mellier & Co.' They advertised themselves as 'specialists in the rich decorative styles of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' (J. Cooper, Victorian & Edwardian Furniture and Interiors, p.24) and had premises located on 60 Margaret Street and Cavendish Square, London.

Mellier was renowned for his work with the most well-regarded interior designers and leading architects of his day, producing collections of furnishings and decorations for such residences as the Farmleigh House and Estate in Dublin, the Manderston, Berwickshire property of Sir James Miller, and the Grosvenor Square residence of Henry Duveen in London. One of his most famous commissions was for the trans-Atlantic ocean liner, Mauritania, built in 1907.

By the end of the 19th century, Mellier & Co was recognised as one of the finest cabinet-making firms in England.