THE GRIMSTHORPE CASTLE CHAIRS

A pair of George II parcel gilt mahogany side chairs attributed to Wright and Elwick.
The 1813 inventory of Grimsthorpe mentions ‘6 mahogany chairs carv’d backs / and stuffd seats cover’d with Drab / emboss’d Velvet in suite with the / Bed Furniture’.
The chairs were converted from stuff-over seats to drop-in seats at some time prior to 1924, when they were photographed in situ at Grimsthorpe; the bed en suite with the chairs can be seen in the 1924 photograph of the Tapestry Bedroom.

Literature: Illustrated:
‘Grimsthorpe Castle III’, ‘Country Life’, 26 April 1924, pp. 650-56,,fig. 10.
H. Avray Tipping and Christopher Hussey, ‘English Homes’, Period IV, vol. II, 1928, p. 320, fig. 475.
‘Antique Collector’, July 1946, advertisement; with H. Blairman &Sons Ltd.
Margaret Jourdain and F. Rose, ‘English Furniture, the Georgian Period 1750-1830’, 1953, p. 72, illus. 32.
Lanto Synge, ‘Mallett’s Great English Furniture’, 1991, p. 48, fig. 41.
Mallett & Son Ltd., ‘A Noble Art, Historic Needlework’, 1999, pp. 54-5.
Nicholas Goodison and Robin Kern, ‘Hotspur - Eighty Years of Antiques Dealing’, 2004, p. 135, illus. 7.

Provenance

Peregrine, 3rd Duke of Ancaster (1714-1778) for Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, England.
Gilbert, 2nd Earl of Ancaster (1867-1951).
H. Blairman & Sons Ltd., London, England, 1946.
Collection of Mr. and Miss Clariça Davidson, England, until 1988.
Mallett & Son Ltd., London, England, until 1999.
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Saul P. Steinberg, New York, USA.
Private collection, New York, USA.