An pair of unusual oak hall chairs of the late Regency, in the manner of George Smith or Richard Bridgens
England, circa 1825.

Why we like them
The architectural boldness and chunkiness of these hall chairs is highly unusual. Also of great colour and natural patination, these chairs are highly decorative and rare.

The triumphal arched backs of these chairs are fretted in the romantic 'Elizabethan' fashion of medieval window tracery, as introduced in the mid-18th Century by the author Horace Walpole; but they are conceived in the more robust gothic fashion promoted in the early 19th Century at Windsor Castle by James Wyatt (d.1813) as Surveyor General of King George III's Office of Works. The Gothic manner was further promoted by George Smith's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826.

The chair's front legs are virtually identical to those of an armchair, attributed to George Smith, sold Christie's London, 22 May 2008, lot 47 while its back legs are chamfered in the manner, typical of George Bullock and Richard Bridgens.