Fine early 19th century Regency desk armchair of Grecian Klismos form in mahogany, after Thomas Sheraton's design

English, circa 1810

Reeded overall, with a concave rectangular toprail, flanked by anthemion carved tablets, above a U-shaped swagged splat and a Trafalgar seat, covered in burgundy leather, with downswept and scrolled arms, the whole raised on finely curved sabre legs. This design of this armchair derives from the antique Grecian Klismos chair, having distinctively curved front and back legs.

The design of the chair-back, with its reeded drapery swag and carved crest rail tablets, relates to that of an 1804 'Drawing Room Chair' pattern illustrated in Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist's Encyclopaedia, London, 1803-1806, pl. 1. The same pattern was adapted for the dining chairs supplied to the 2nd Earl Talbot (d. 1849), supposedly by the London firm of Marsh and Tatham, around 1808 for his ancestral Staffordshire manor of Ingestre.

For a related, though less sophisticated example, see Christies, 3 July 1997, lot 150.

Good antique condition. Great colour and patina. Historic restorations. Structurally sturdy.