Part of the suite in situ at Browsholme Hall, Lancashire, in 1935. Courtesy of Country Life Picture Archive
THE BROWSHOLME HALL CHAIRS, English, circa 1710
Height of seat: 19 ½ in; 49.5 cm
Width: 24 in; 61 cm
Depth: 28 in; 71 cm
Further images
A pair of Queen Anne gesso side chairs attributed to James Moore the Elder.
Note: The backs have been reinstated to their original rectangular shape. The gesso was at one stage silvered.
James Moore together with John Gumley held a Royal Warrant to supply gesso furniture and mirrors to the Royal Households of Queen Anne and George I. Moore and Gumley also supplied the nobility. The fragility of gesso means that only some of their items have survived, and Moore also produced little gesso seat furniture, so these chairs are particularly rare.
Provenance
Probably supplied to Edward Parker (d. 1728), for Browsholme Hall, Lancashire, England, or possibly acquired by John Parker (d. 1754) or Thomas Lister Parker (d. 1858).
By descent until the 1950s.
Temple Williams Ltd., London, England, 1962.
Mallett and Son Ltd., London, England.
Private collection, London, England.
Private collection, Northern Ireland.
Exhibitions
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, CINOA Third International Art Treasures exhibition, 1962.Literature
Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised edition, 1954, vol. III, p. 280, fig. 19.
Parke-Bernet Galleries, ‘English Furniture, The Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Collection’, sale catalogue, New York, Part I, 29 - 30 April 1960, pp. 132 - 5, lot 244; a related gesso suite.
Illustrated:
Country Life, 13 July 1935; part of the suite in situ at Browsholme Hall, Lancashire.
Browsholme Hall guidebook, 1950s, back cover; two chairs and a stool of the suite.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, CINOA Third International Art Treasures Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, 1962, no. 82, p. 12.
Edward T. Joy, The Country Life Book of Chairs, 1968, p. 41, illus. 33.
