A PAIR OF EAU DE NIL GREEN PAINTED 'LOOP' ARMCHAIRS, MODERN, AFTER

lot/a pair of eau de nil green painted loop armchairs modern after E7rwMSr 632652685 / Price history

lot/a pair of eau de nil green painted loop armchairs modern after E7rwMSr 632652685

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lot/a pair of eau de nil green painted loop armchairs modern after E7rwMSr 632652685

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A PAIR OF EAU DE NIL GREEN PAINTED 'LOOP' ARMCHAIRS, MODERN, AFTER

A PAIR OF EAU DE NIL GREEN PAINTED 'LOOP' ARMCHAIRS MODERN, AFTER THE 18TH CENTURY EXAMPLE AT DITCHLEY PARK The drop in seat upholstered in check cotton 100cm high, 66cm wide, 70cm deep Literature: Shax Reigler `The `It' chair', The Magazine Antiques, 27 January, 2009. The chairs’ design corresponds to an unusual set of black and gilt-japanned chairs apparently executed in the 1760s and later revived in the 1930s by the American decorator Frances Elkins. A set comprising at least one armchair and five side chairs was first published in furniture historian Percy Macquoid’s A History of English Furniture The Age of Satinwood, 1904 – 08, p.194 fig. 178……, at which time they were in the collection of Frank Green (d.1954), a wealthy industrialist who between 1897 and 1930 restored the Treasurer’s House, York (now National Trust). By 1924 they had passed to Edward Hudson (d.1936), founder of Country Life magazine, and were illustrated in Macquoid’s Dictionary of English Furniture, 1924 – 27, vol. I, p. 282. They were subsequently acquired by Ronald and Nancy Tree (later Lancaster) for their home Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire which Nancy decorated in collaboration with Sibyl Colefax and Stephane Boudin. Two of the chairs are recorded at Ditchley in watercolours by Alexandre Serebriakoff painted in 1950, the armchair featuring in his view of the Writing Room. It was during the Tree’s time at Ditchley that Nancy gained the reputation of having `the best taste of almost anyone in the world’ (Bedell Smith, In All His Glory The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting, 1990, p.206). The set was sold after Ronald Tree’s death, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 8 and 9 October 1976, lot 312 and was later with the London dealer Mallet. In the early 1930s, presumably having seen the chairs in print, or in the flesh, the California decorator Frances Elkins (d.1953) produced a number of `loop’ chairs based on the 18th century prototype. Elkins had spent time in Paris with her brother, the renowned architect David Adler (d.1949), and there she met the interior designer Jean-Michel Frank and the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. On returning to California and marrying in 1918, she set about restoring and decorating her own home in Monterey and was soon undertaking projects for friends and Pebble Beach socialites. Among her first works was Hester Griffin’s colonial revival house in Monterey where she combined Chippendale furniture, Queen Anne mirrors and lacquer screens with lamps by Jean-Michel Frank and Salvador Dali. Her reputation spread first to San Francisco where she worked for Edward G. Robinson and the Marshall Fields, in James D. Zellerbach’s Pacific Heights residence Elkins introduced Giacometti wall sculpture and fireplace furniture. Collaborating with Adler she worked across the country, to Illinois and the East coast (including Richard T. Crane’s Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts). Like Giacometti, Elkins own furniture designs were often rooted in nature, such as her tree-form floor lamps (1937). She is believed to have produced two sets of four armchairs of this `loop’ pattern, faithfully copying details of the originals including the dipped seat, for Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Wheeler, Lake Forest, Illinois, and for Evelyn Marshall Field’s Long Island home (published in Vogue, 1936). The chairs are prominent in photographs of both properties and have achieved iconic status. Elkins impulse at so early a date to combine traditional architecture and antiques with works from the European avant-garde mark her as a visionary decorator of profound influence. Her `loop’ chairs were reproduced by a number of followers and they remain popular among decorators and their clients to the present. Condition Report Disclaimer, A PAIR OF EAU DE NIL GREEN PAINTED 'LOOP' ARMCHAIRS, A PAIR OF EAU DE NIL GREEN PAINTED 'LOOP' ARMCHAIRS MODERN, AFTER THE 18TH CENTURY EXAMPLE AT DITCHLEY PARK The drop in seat upholstered in check cotton 100cm high, 66cm wide, 70cm deep Literature: Shax Reigler `The `It' chair', The Magazine Antiques, 27 January, 2009. The chairs’ design corresponds to an unusual set of black and gilt-japanned chairs apparently executed in the 1760s and later revived in the 1930s by the American decorator Frances Elkins. A set comprising at least one armchair and five side chairs was first published in furniture historian Percy Macquoid’s A History of English Furniture The Age of Satinwood, 1904 – 08, p.194 fig. 178……, at which time they were in the collection of Frank Green (d.1954), a wealthy industrialist who between 1897 and 1930 restored the Treasurer’s House, York (now National Trust). By 1924 they had passed to Edward Hudson (d.1936), founder of Country Life magazine, and were illustrated in Macquoid’s Dictionary of English Furniture, 1924 – 27, vol. I, p. 282. They were subsequently acquired by Ronald and Nancy Tree (later Lancaster) for their home Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire which Nancy decorated in collaboration with Sibyl Colefax and Stephane Boudin. Two of the chairs are recorded at Ditchley in watercolours by Alexandre Serebriakoff painted in 1950, the armchair featuring in his view of the Writing Room. It was during the Tree’s time at Ditchley that Nancy gained the reputation of having `the best taste of almost anyone in the world’ (Bedell Smith, In All His Glory The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting, 1990, p.206). The set was sold after Ronald Tree’s death, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 8 and 9 October 1976, lot 312 and was later with the London dealer Mallet. In the early 1930s, presumably having seen the chairs in print, or in the flesh, the California decorator Frances Elkins (d.1953) produced a number of `loop’ chairs based on the 18th century prototype. Elkins had spent time in Paris with her brother, the renowned architect David Adler (d.1949), and there she met the interior designer Jean-Michel Frank and the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. On returning to California and marrying in 1918, she set about restoring and decorating her own home in Monterey and was soon undertaking projects for friends and Pebble Beach socialites. Among her first works was Hester Griffin’s colonial revival house in Monterey where she combined Chippendale furniture, Queen Anne mirrors and lacquer screens with lamps by Jean-Michel Frank and Salvador Dali. Her reputation spread first to San Francisco where she worked for Edward G. Robinson and the Marshall Fields, in James D. Zellerbach’s Pacific Heights residence Elkins introduced Giacometti wall sculpture and fireplace furniture. Collaborating with Adler she worked across the country, to Illinois and the East coast (including Richard T. Crane’s Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts). Like Giacometti, Elkins own furniture designs were often rooted in nature, such as her tree-form floor lamps (1937). She is believed to have produced two sets of four armchairs of this `loop’ pattern, faithfully copying details of the originals including the dipped seat, for Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Wheeler, Lake Forest, Illinois, and for Evelyn Marshall Field’s Long Island home (published in Vogue, 1936). The chairs are prominent in photographs of both properties and have achieved iconic status. Elkins impulse at so early a date to combine traditional architecture and antiques with works from the European avant-garde mark her as a visionary decorator of profound influence. Her `loop’ chairs were reproduced by a number of followers and they remain popular among decorators and their clients to the present. Literature:, The Magazine Antiques, A History of English Furniture The Age of Satinwood, Country Life, Dictionary of English Furniture, In All His Glory The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting, Vogue, Condition Report Disclaimer

Estimate:£4,000

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