A Pair from a Set of Four French Hepplewhite Mahogany Armchairs

A pair from a set of four finely carved mahogany open armchairs in the French Hepplewhite manner, each having an oval back and serpentine seat with channelled arms terminating in slender cabriole legs with tipped feet.

Listed price is for the pair.

Along with Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, is considered one of England’s greatest cabinet-makers although no furniture by him is actually recorded. There is very limited documentary evidence concerning Hepplewhite’s working life, although it is likely that he was born in County Durham in 1727. Another source suggests that he served his apprecnticeship with Gillows of Lancaster – a prominent firm of cabinet makers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Records also state that he had a shop in London and that two years after his death in 1786, his widow Alice published ‘The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide’, with further editions published in 1789 and 1790. This book became one of the most influential furniture design sources of the 18th century.

The Hepplewhite style is quite different from Chippendale’s owing to its lighter structures, slender forms and curvilinear attributes. In seating furniture, shorter arms and tapering legs are also typically present and the most iconic element is the shield back.

‘French Hepplewhite’ is a stylistic label that has become attached to pieces of Hepplewhite furniture made in the late 1760s and 1770s which show the direct influence of Louis XV designs. This pair from a group of four upholstered open armchairs is thus a very English interpretation of this French form.