Gillows: Pair of Regency Shell Back Hall Chairs

A very good pair of shell-back mahogany chairs probably by Gillows of London and Lancaster with excellent carving and great color and patina. The chair backs, richly carved with Venus-shell and C-scrolls predate the robust antique style promoted by George Smith in The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide of 1826. The first recorded example of this style of hall chairs was a commission for the Revd. Holland Edwards of Pennant, Conway, North Wales, delivered in 1811. These chairs with octagonal legs and spool feet were made for the Salwey family of Moor Park, Richard’s Castle, Shropshire probably between 1815 and 1820.

Gillows of Lancaster and London, founded c. 1730 became one of the pre-eminent English cabinet making firms of the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, on a par with Chippendale, Mayhew and Ince and Holland and Sons. Supplying nobility and gentry, particularly from northern Catholic families, the firm remained in family hands until it was acquired by a management partnership between 1815 and 1820. The firm maintained its standards through the late 19^th century when it was acquired by the competing firm of Warings. The firm of Waring and Gillows finally closed its doors in the 1950s.

For a similar chair, see Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2008 by Susan Stuart vol. 1, p. 203, plate 177.

English, c. 1815

Provenance:
Salwey Family, Moor Park, Shropshire

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