9899 Anelegant Louis XV mahogany Bergère salon chair, the serpentine moulded caned back with a finely carved sil-vered Earl's Coronet, the caned seat on carved cabriole legs terminating in scroll feet. AL40008 211/ 2x221/ 2x38 in. 54 x 57 x 96 cm. Amahogany Hall chair from a set of 12 from the Wootton Hall, these chairs were commissioned by John 1st Earl Spencer ( 1734- 1783) designed for the Entrance Hall of Spencer House, St James, London. The seat rail was carved with a similar pattern of bucrania festoons to that of the frieze. The back is carved with foliage, rosettes and scrolls and the central panel paint-ed with the Spencer crest, a griffin, surmounted by an Earl's Coronet, which was added sometime after Spencer's elevation to this rank in 1765. Traditionally, hall chairs in England were not upholstered for practi-cal reasons - if guests arrived they were requested to wait in the entrance hall, one did not want the mud and water they might have absorbed on horseback to be rubbed into expensive coverings. It is understood the originals were made by Ince and Mayhew to the design of John Vardy, 1758. The original shown below in The Wootton Hall. AL40023 ( right) 201/ 2x21 x 40 in. 52 x 53 x 101 cm.

9899 THE WOOTTON HALL CHAIRS