THE HEYDON HALL CHAIRS. ATTRIBUTED TO GILES GRENDY
Depth: 21” 53cm
Height: 39 ¾” 101cm
Provenance
Supplied to Augustine Earle (d. 1762) for Heydon Hall, Norfolk and then at Heydon until sold by Mrs. Granville Duff in London in 1930.
Herbert Rothbarth at Checkendon Court, Reading, Berkshire in May 1960.
Phillips of Hitchin, Hertfordshire October 1961 and exhibited at The London Antique Dealers Fair.
Rhode Island Family, U.S.A.
Exhibitions
London, The Antiques Dealers Fair, 1961
Publications
'Heydon Hall, Norfolk', Country Life, 22 December 1923, p. 905, fig. 10
An important and very well documented pair of early George II side chairs in well figured veneered walnut and burr walnut, the carved shaped top rails centered by a shell above a shaped splat and with shaped seats covered in floral gros point and petit point needlework standing on carved cabriole legs carved with foliage and terminating in hairy paw feet, the seat rails stamped with journeyman initials.
The quality of this pair of chairs, pronounced stylistic elements and provenance offer a firm attribution, to them being made by the celebrated cabinetmaker Giles Grendey, who was born at Wooton-under-Edge in Gloucestshire in 1693. His workshop was at Aylesbury House, St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell, London
This pair of chairs were supplied to the antiquarian and Judge Advocate Augustine Earle (d.1762) for Heydon Hall, Norfolk and were likely introduced around 1740 during the Norfolk mansion's aggrandisement by the architect Matthew Brettingham (d.1769), who had gained renown for the construction of Holkham Hall, Norfolk.