News

A newly discovered set of Chippendale chairs from Denton Hall
Among the many fine pieces of furniture offered for sale at Sotheby’s New York on 5th and 6th April (‘A Celebration of the English Country House’) were a remarkable set of ten chairs (and a later pair of matching armchairs) with an impeccable provenance to Denton Hall, near Otley (lot 430). Remarkably, they are almost identical to the ‘10 oval backed Satton Wood Chairs covered with Needlework’ supplied by Chippendale to the Coffee Room at Harewood c1770. Clearly they were part of Sir James Ibbetson’s commission with the firm dating from after the house was completed in about 1777 and which we know from a document in the Society’s possession to have amounted in total to £551. Few authenticated Chippendale pieces from Denton have been identified apart from the two pier tables also in the Society’s possession at Temple Newsam, and a commode at Pittsburg. Thus this set of chairs is a welcome addition to the corpus of firmly attributed pieces supplied to Chippendale’s only known commission within the parish boundary of his own home town.

It is interesting that Chippendale never exactly repeated a successfully design for different clients – there are always subtle variations, perhaps not surprising in this case since the two sets are approximately six or seven years apart. The Denton chairs are veneered in mahogany rather than satinwood; they have a border of laurel wreaths in their back roundels; and the legs are square sectioned with spade feet rather than turned. Otherwise they have Chippendale’s usual notches in the underframes of the seats (used for glue clamps) and indications of screw holes for battening.

Denton passed by inheritance to the Wyvill family in 1861. Forty years later the house was let and much of its original furniture was taken to their ancestral seat at Constable Burton, in Wensleydale. These chairs were sold by Mrs D’Arcy Wyvill to the antique collector Arthur S. Vernay of New York in 1922. His surviving ledgers record their purchase and subsequent sale to Mrs L.S. Morris of East 64th Street for $4,000. They achieved $180,000 (including buyer’s premium) at the recent sale.