CHAIRS — cabriole leg, low back
The lower back chairs are normally associated with the George I period. Certainly the design settled down around the 1720s and carved decoration became increasingly used.
A good George I example. The seat rail is much deeper than those of the previous section and the back is lower. The carved shell is hipped into the seat and the top rail is scooped into a definite hollow in the middle.
The top rail is also more rounded in appearance and the distinction between it and the back uprights more difficult to define, as they flow into each other. The flat face of the uprights, splat and seat rails are veneered
for decoration. c. 1725    Single $2,500 — 3,500 Pair $8, 000 — 12, 000
This very fine chair with the shepherd’s crook arms has superb cabrioles with hipped decoration on the knee, ball-and-claw feet and despite the low back, superb movement. A collector’s dream. c.1720
A country version with the fashionable low front (not always a pot cupboard), a veneered back splat and firmly fixed shepherd’s crook arms. c.1720
A lesser quality chair on which the shell carving on the knee has an almost stuck-on appearance and looks out of place. Note that the chair is made of solid walnut and features no veneer, although the face of the back uprights is flat, as though to be veneered. See how material has been saved in producing the shaped back uprights — the lower inward curve of the left hand back upright is a different piece of wood joined to the main upright: the lighter colour betrays it. c. 1720
A mahogany high quality chair with carved decoration — see how the curving back uprights end in eagles’ heads where they meet the top rail. Cuban mahogany encouraged a revival in the carver’s art. Notice too that
the seat has become larger and generally more solid. A move towards Chippendale. 1730-1740
A fruitwood chair with rounded back uprights rather like chairs from the previous section. It has a rather country appearance despite the quality of the cabrioles and back splat, which is quite sophisticated. c.1730
Although this chair has lost its front feet, it illustrates a stretchered type with flat-faced back uprights, the whole chair being made in solid walnut. It has little of the curvature of the back which the chairs in the previous section show, although akin to them below the seat level. Note that the shoulder piece is missing on the right hand cabriole. c.1735