An Adam Period Armchair from the Suite made for the Duke of Newcastle at Clumber

Provenance

Part of a suite made for the Duke of Newcastle at Clumber Park. It retains the original Clumber Park ivorine inventory label with the number 456 on it. This is crucially important as another pair from the same suite, with the ivorine label and number 455 on them were sold in New York by Doyle’s on the 11th of June 2020.

Seven chairs from the suite were sold at Christie’s on the 9th of June 1937 and were bought by the dealer Henry Morton Lee (father of Ronald Lee)

Despite the great importance of the Clumber commission, sadly there is no known surviving documentation which might reveal the authorship of the present chair or any of the other great pieces from the house. An attribution on stylistic grounds to John Linnell seems entirely reasonable, however, given the elegance of proportions and the finely carved anthemion cresting.

Interestingly the great dealer Chris Jussel of Vernay and Jussel in New York advertised a pair of armchairs from the same suite in the December 1978 issue of Connoisseur magazine and described the chairs as an ‘important pair of Adam oval back mahogany open armchairs’.