Description
A pair of Irish 18th century mahogany side chairs, the rectangular padded backs and seats covered in green silk velvet, on acanthus carved cabriole legs joined by wavered stretchers, terminating in paw feet.
Note: One chair of later date.
Irish, circa 1750
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Literature:
The Knight of Glin and James Peill, Irish Furniture: Woodwork and Carving in Ireland from the Earliest times to the Act of Union, New Haven and London, 2007. P .105 (fig.133).
A similar flat stretcher can be seen on a side chair (fig.133), or 'back stool' as contemporary descriptions called them, in a private collection. The chair has squared paw feet with an acanthus-carved 'fretlock' above. English furniture generally has more naturalistic lion-paw feet, where as the Irish cabinet-makers squared their version. This was possibly originally from practical considerations, given that the leg and foot would have been carved from a square block of wood, but it seems to have become a standard motif in Ireland. A portrait (fig.134) of John Conry (1704-69) of Shankill and Bettifield, Co.Roscommon, shows a very similar back stool with flat stretcher and squared paw feet.
Rory Rogers +353 (0)87 221 3741
John Carroll +44 (0)7802 345 529
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A PAIR OF IRISH GEORGE II MAHOGANY SIDE CHAIRS
(Rollover image above for magnification)
