A PAIR OF GEORGE II BLUE/GREEN JAPANNED ARMCHAIRS , English, circa 1750
Height: 42 ½ in; 108 cm
Height of seat: 19 in; 49 cm
Width: 25 ¾ in; 65.5 cm
Depth: 22 ½ in 57 cm
Height of seat: 19 in; 49 cm
Width: 25 ¾ in; 65.5 cm
Depth: 22 ½ in 57 cm
4414831
£100,000 +
Attributed to the workshop of Giles Grendey, the chairs retain most of their original gold decoration and their original caned seats. Giles Grendey had his workshops in Clerkenwell in London...
Attributed to the workshop of Giles Grendey, the chairs retain most of their original gold decoration and their original caned seats.
Giles Grendey had his workshops in Clerkenwell in London where he employed a fleet of cabinet makers producing mainly walnut and mahogany furniture. Some of his chairs are stamped with initials inside the seat rails and legs. These initials indicate the individual cabinet makers responsible for making the piece of furniture. It also confirms that the workshop was of some considerable size making it necessary to mark the pieces, presumably for payment to the individual maker by Grendey. Grendey also traded in timber and japanned furniture. The latter was made famous by the discovery of R. W. Symonds of a vast commission to the Dukes of Infantado in Spain where some seventy-two pieces of red japanned furniture were recorded in the 1930s prior to their dispersal around the world. Some of these pieces had Grendey’s paper trade labels pasted to them.
This pair of green japanned armchairs was most likely also part of an export commission by Grendey. This is based on the absence of upholstery and the extremely rich gold decoration, both usually associated with export furniture. In England seating would have been upholstered at this stage whilst caned seats were still being made for export. Perhaps European clients did not like the trend to upholster the seats or what is more likely is that the transport by boat could spoil the upholstery due to damp and possible flooding. Decoration on japanned pieces was usually richer and denser on export pieces whilst the British versions were less ostentatious. The commission for Erdigg by Grendey is one such example.
The unusual dark green colour of the lacquer appears in a group of pieces attributed to the workshop of Grendey which include a pair of bureau cabinets, several sets of side chairs, mirrors of various sizes and a set of four girandoles. All of these above mentioned pieces have European provenance and it is possible that some or all of these pieces were originally part of a single export commission which is yet to be discovered. Further research may reveal such a commission in the future.
Provenance
Private collection, Italy.
