A HIGHLY IMPORTANT PAIR OF GEORGE IV PERIOD ROSEWOOD LIBRARY BERGERE CHAIRS IN THE GRECIAN TASTE

Description / Expertise

The lyre-shaped fronts being after the Antique and carved with classical motifs, the chairs supported on turned and reeded legs front and back, the legs terminating in the original brass castors, the design most probably by GILLOW OF LANCASTER, the seat rails stamped 'H.H.'.

The very strong probability on design grounds that this pair of chairs emanated from the GILLOW manufactory at Lancaster, would facilitate the search into ascertaining the owner of the stamp H.H. In The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840 edited by Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, the following insert is made on page 445: 'Holmes, Henry, Lancastser. Named in the Gillow records, 1805-1834. (Westminster Reference Library.)' Given that these dates would seem to tie in with the design of the chairs, it is therefore most likely that Henry Holmes was their maker.