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Product Description

An exceptional pair of hall chairs in the Grecian style of Thomas Hope and of the finest quality and timber. The arms painted to the chair backs are Miles impaling Whetham for Philip John Miles (1773-1845) and his first wife Maria Whetham (d 1811), the daughter of the Very Reverand Arthur Whetham, Dean of Lismore. They were married in 1795 and these chairs would have been commissioned for that occasion when this new Grecian style was at the height of fashion. The Miles family were wealthy merchants and bankers of Bristol and Jamaica and Philip John Miles who was Bristol’s first recorded millionaire lived firstly at Kings Weston, Gloustershire and following the death of his wife Maria he moved in 1813 with his second wife, Clarissa Peach to Leigh Court Somerset. The present chairs were probably made for Kings Weston or the family’s London residence. Phillip Miles was Member of Parliament for Gloustershire, and his son William Miles (1797-1878), MP for Chippenham was created Baronet of Leigh Court in 1859. The family bank, Miles & Co. was later merged into what is now NatWest.

English 1795

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