A pair of  George III parcel gilt and blue japanned armchairs almost certainly by Thomas Chippendale.

Note: The chair frames have been dry stripped, revealing sections of the original decorative blue and gold colour scheme which has now been reinstated.

The chairs display many key markers found on documented chairs from the Chippendale workshop; for example, the exceptional attention paid to the shape of the mouldings and in particular the border to either side of the laurel leaf centre of the seat rail. What seems to be flat here is actually very slightly concave, which subtly softens the appearance. The elegant arms are fixed to the side of the seat, which is again characteristic of Chippendale production, although after Thomas Chippendale senior’s death in 1779 some chairs occasionally featured arms joined to the front legs. The oval back has the typical raised centre at the base, where a back strut gives extra support. The corner pieces set into the back are made of mahogany rather than lime wood like the rest of the frame, and this is unique to chairs from the Chippendale workshop. And the underside of the seat bears the typical clamping notches as well as batten holes for transport.

All these markers confirm a Chippendale attribution. Although it has not been possible to establish the original provenance, the presence of the transport holes underneath the seat frame narrows it down to a commission from outside London.