Christie’s, Furniture, Silver and Porcelain from Longleat (June 2002), lots 338
Coleridge, A. ‘Some Mid-Georgian Cabinet-Makers at Holkham’, Apollo, February 1964, p. 122-8
Goodman, Sharon. ‘The 9th Earl of Lincoln (1720-1794) and the refurbishment of Exchequer House, 10 Downing Street’, The British Art Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, Winter 2017, pp. 3-7
Jackson-Stops, Gervase, ‘The Furniture at Petworth’, Apollo (May 1977), Vol. 105, No. 183, pp. 358-66
A pair of George III walnut armchairs, the serpentine top rails above out-scrolling arms caved with shells, scrolls and acanthus leaves, standing on four carved cabriole legs hipped at the knee and similarly carved, terminating in scroll toes.
Paul Saunders was one of the pre-eminent, most fashionable makers of upholstered seat furniture and tapestries of the eighteenth century, ranking alongside Thomas Chippendale and Vile & Cobb. Holding Royal appointment from as Yeoman Arras Worker to the Great Wardrobe and Yeoman Tapestry Taylor, amongst his illustrious clientele of aristocrats were the Earl of Leicester, the Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Northumberland.
This pair of chairs was almost certainly made by Paul Saunders, one of the most prominent and fashionable makers of cabinet and upholstered seat furniture and tapestries of the mid eighteenth century.
The chairs bear very close resemblance to Saunders’ documented work for Thomas, 3rd Viscount Weymouth, later 1st Marquess of Bath (1734-1796) at Longleat, a suite of eight armchairs and two settees, covered by payments to Saunders of £556 15s. 0d. in November 1757 and £300. 0s. 0d. in November 1759, and his attributed work for Henry, 1st Earl of Powis at Powis Castle (NT 1181050.1-3), an eight piece set of mahogany and parcel gilt seat furniture, comprising three armchairs, four side chairs and a settee.
The present armchairs are of highly comparable form to the Longleat and Powis armchairs, featuring serpentine rectangular backs and out-pointing cabriole arms carved on the terms with scrolls and on the supports with upspringing acanthus. The present chairs bear particular resemblance to the Longleat examples which do not feature carved rails and are raised on cabriole legs terminating in scrolled feet.
The present armchairs also share motifs with the suite of eight armchairs made by Saunders for the 2nd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House, Sussex (NT 485400.1-7), associated with the bill sent to the Earl’s executors in 1763 detailing ‘8 smaller French Elbow chairs...£40’. The present armchairs and Petworth examples feature identical shell issuing acanthus leaf carving on the knees and upspringing acanthus on the arm supports. Like the Petworth chairs, the present examples are also constructed in walnut.
Elegant, refined and light, the chairs are designed in the French taste popularised by Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director. Saunders was a subscriber to the first edition (1754) and these chairs demonstrate the influence particularly of Plates XII, XIII, No. 1A and No. 15 of the first edition and Plates IX, X, XI and XIX of the third (1762). Nonetheless, in their particular ornamentation these beautifully drawn and fluently carved chairs demonstrate Saunders’ unique, personal interpretation of the Rococo style.
Paul Saunders (1722-1771)
Paul Saunders was one of the most fashionable cabinet-makers, upholders and tapissiers of the 1750s and 1760s, enjoying the patronage of the most high-profile aristocratic taste-makers of the mid eighteenth century as well as Royal appointment, from October 1757 as ‘Yeoman Arras Worker to the Great Wardrobe’, and from May 1761 as ‘Yeoman Tapestry Taylor’, holding the positions concurrently until his death in 1771.
Employing at least thirty-seven journeymen by 1755, a notice in the Public Advisor of 6th February 1755 records, Saunders’ firm was of comparable size to that of Chippendale, who likely employed around forty-four at this time. As is evidenced by the quality of the present chairs, his documented work and clientele, he certainly also ranks alongside the famous St. Martin’s Lane firm.
In addition to Petworth and Longleat, Saunders worked for the Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall between 1755 and 1758, supplying two suites of seat furniture amongst bed furniture and tapestries, for Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh at Uppark House, Sussex in 1761, providing a set of eight chairs and tapestry upholstery, and for the Duke of Bedford at both Woburn Abbey and Bedford House, London from 1765 until his own death in 1771.
He was also employed in the furnishing of the newly-completed Mansion House, London (1752-3), leading the project as the senior partner in the collaboration between himself, William Kilpin and William Chesson in this this important and prestigious commission to furnish the State Bedchamber at the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London and the then major public building in the City of London.
He worked for Lord Lyttelton at Hagley Hall, providing a series of tapestry furniture covers to harmonise with a set of Arabesques by Joshua Morris for the drawing room and for Sir John Griffin Griffin at Audley End, Essex, supplying between 1765 and 1772 general furniture in addition to tapestries for the Tapestry Dressing Room, intended for use by the Queen, curtains, silk pulls, window blinds and most famously a bed with crimson damask hangings, intended for the King, with matching window curtains, wallpaper and carpets to the bedchamber adjoining the State Apartment, intended for the Queen.
Other clients included the Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Norfolk, Duke of Northumberland, Earl Spencer, Earl Temple, Earl of Scarborough, Earl of Albemarle, Earl of Darlington, Viscount Irwin and Sir Orlando Bridgeman.
Admitted to the Upholders’ Company on 5th December 1751, Saunders received one of his first important commissions from Henry Fiennes Clinton, 9th Earl of Lincoln (1720-1794) to refurbish Exchequer House, 10 Downing Street. A favourite of George II (1683-1760) who described him ‘the handsomest man in England’, Lincoln, later 2nd Duke of Newcastle, was by 1752 already Gentleman of the Bedchamber, Cofferer of the Royal Household and Auditor of the Exchequer. Relatively obscure at this date, 1752, the commission, which amounted to more than 2,000 pounds, undoubtedly contributed to Saunders’ later reputation as one of London’s leading makers of cabinet and upholstered furniture.
Saunders’ work at Exchequer House led to his working for Lord Lincoln at his country residences, Oatlands House and Clinton Lodge one year later, thereafter working on all three simultaneously. With these two further projects, the total commission amounted to over £5,000. The extensive accounts, recently discovered, from February 1752 to July 1757 for the refurbishment of Exchequer House are too sparing to enable firm identification of furniture today. However, they, like his future commissions, reveal the extent of the work offered by Saunders’ firm. The accounts show that ‘Paul Saunders & Co.’ offered a comprehensive interior decorating service, which in addition to providing fine furniture supplied upholstery, tapestries and carpets also undertook paper hanging, general reparation, and alteration and cleaning of fittings.
The success of Saunders’ work at Exchequer House, Oatlands and Clinton Lodge precipitated further commissions. In the early to mid 1750s he worked at Mansion House (1752-53), Holderness House (1754-58), Holkham Hall (1755-58) and Petworth House (1748-67) and in October 1757 was appointed ‘Yeoman Arras Worker to the Great Wardrobe’ and in May 1761 ‘Yeoman Tapestry Taylor’. Lincoln may have been instrumental in securing these commissions as well as, with his positions at Court, Saunders’ Royal appointments. In August 1752 Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, friend of Lincoln, took the Prince of Wales (the future George III), of whom he was appointed governor in 1751, and Prince Edward to Oatlands for the day, where they undoubtedly saw Saunders’ splendid interiors and furniture.
Saunders’ relationship with Lincoln did not end in 1758. Accounts from the 1760s and early 1770s show that Saunders was still working for the Duke of Newcastle at Exchequer House in January 1766, and at Oatlands House as well as Clumber Park and Nottingham Castle, as well as for the Duke’s sons, Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 10th Earl of Lincoln (1750-78) and Thomas Pelham-Clinton, later 3rd Duke of Newcastle under Lyne (1752-95). He was also engaged by the 2nd Duke’s aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne, Harriet Pelham-Holles (1701-76), at Newcastle House, London.
The present chairs are exceptional quality and will have been supplied to one of Saunders’ important aristocratic clients at either their grand country or town house. It is interesting to note that Richard Wright, later of Wright & Elwick, was director of ‘The Royal Tapestry Manufactory, Soho Square’ before founding the famous Wakefield firm with Edward Elwick, hence the similarity between the carved decoration later used by the firms. The experience Wright gained with Saunders enabled him to set up what would become the pre-eminent firm of cabinet-makers and upholsterers in Yorkshire during the second half of the eighteenth century, comparable in dominance to that enjoyed by Gillows in Lancashire. Indeed, Wright noted on Wright & Elwick’s trade card he had been ‘in ye direction of ye Greatest Tapestry Manufactory in England for Upwards of Twenty Years’.
Similarly, when Saunders and George Smith Bradshaw dissolved their partnership on 15th October 1756, having formed it in 1751, Bradshaw continued the business from premises in Greek Street with his apprentice John Mayhew, whom he had taken on two years earlier, while Saunders moved to Soho Square, with William Ince as his partner. In 1759, William Ince and John Mayhew would form the very important firm Ince & Mayhew.
Saunders himself remains mysterious. However, it is clear he was an ambitious, business-savvy and charismatic man, able to win work from a great many of Britain’s aristocratic and royal patrons of the period. An idea of the nature of the man himself is provided by a letter of September 1748 written by Saunders in the Petworth archives which demonstrates both his high degree of literacy and familiarity with Petworth and the Duke’s health.