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A SET OF SEVENTEEN IRISH WILLIAM IV MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS, INCLUDING ONE OPEN, ARMCHAIR, by WILLI..

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A SET OF SEVENTEEN IRISH WILLIAM IV MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS, INCLUDING ONE OPEN, ARMCHAIR, by WILLI..
A SET OF SEVENTEEN IRISH WILLIAM IV MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS, INCLUDING ONE OPEN
ARMCHAIR, by WILLIAMS & GIBTON, circa 1837, each with padded rounded rectangular backs and seats, six upholstered in dark red buttoned oilcloth, eight in green foliate damask, and one in peach patterned material, two un-upholstered, on channelled cabriole legs and scroll feet, one with castors, all with baton carrying-holes, some ears missing and several with old restorations and metal braced supporting brackets to the back, all side chairs stamped 'Williams & Gibton 29429' (except one just stamped '29429'), the armchair stamped 'Williams & Gibton 29430' and inscribed 'B.W 1837 and III, IV' beneath the arm pads, suggesting that there were originally two armchairs. (17)
e12,000/18,000
LITERATURE: E. McParland. 'Lissadell, Co. Sligo', Country Life, 6 October 1977, p.917 (illustrated in situ).
J. O'Brien and D. Guinness, Great Irish Houses and Castles, London, 1992, p.200 (illustrated in situ)
H. Montgomery-Massingberd and C. Simon Sykes, Great Houses of Ireland, London, 1999, p.193 (illustrated in situ).
J. Gore-Booth, 'What the Butler Wrote', World of Interiors, 2002, p.147 (illustrated in situ).
J.Gore-Booth, 'Lissadell', Irish Arts Review, Summer 2003, p.117 (illustrated in situ).
Sean O'Reilly, 'Lissadell, Co Sligo', Country Life, 25 September, 2003, p.114 (illustrated in situ).
Designed in the 'fashionable' French taste of the mid-1830's, these dining chairs represent a departure from the restrained Grecian idiom so prevalent in the furniture supplied by Williams & Gibton to Lissadell. Interestingly, the dated inscription, '1837', upon the armchair, originally one of a pair, places them towards the end of Williams & Gibton's Lissadell commission. A set of eleven Irish mahogany dining chairs of closely related form, clearly attributable to Williams and Gibton, was sold by an Eastern Museum at Christie's New York, 17 October 1992, lot 267.
The armchair is visible in the interior view of the Drawing Room, opposite lots 154-158.
Interestingly, Sarah Purser's portrait of Sir Henry Gore-Booth (lot 275) shows her subject seated on one of the Lissadell dining chairs.