A SET OF EIGHT GEORGE II WALNUT AND PARCEL GILT DINING CHAIRSCIRCA 1730With repeating eagle motifs, each vertical splat with the Altieri crest, the six stars surmounted by a galero, mantle and tassels, each with drop in seats and cabriole legs terminating in claw and ball feeteach 104cm high, 53cm wide, 49cm deep; together with a pair of later chairs to match, 19th century(10) Provenance:Possibly Palazzo Altieri, Rome Formerly the Messel family collection in the Dining Room at their 104 Lancaster Gate residenceThence by descent to Oliver Messel Purchased from Oliver Messel by Frederick and Phyllis Baden Watkins for Flaxley AbbeyLiterature: J. Lees-Milne, 'Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire - III: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Watkins', Country Life, 12 April 1973, p. 980, fig. 2, The Entrance Hall.J. Musson, 'Bradley Court, Gloucestershire', Country Life, 15 September 2005, pp. 133-134 and fig. 5.T. Messel, Oliver Messel: in the theatre of design, New York, 2011, pp. 122-123, 'the entrance hall'.This set of ten walnut and parcel-gilt dining chairs together with two mahogany examples en suite bear the arms of the Altieri family from Rome. They were originally at 104 Lancaster Gate, the London family of Britain's greatest stage director and artist, Oliver Messel (1904-78). When Nymans burnt down in 1947, Oliver and his two siblings received some of the remaining contents, and after the death of their mother, Maud (née Sambourne), in 1960, Oliver inherited more of the furniture from Lancaster Gate and Holmstead Manor. The chairs were subsequently sold by Oliver to his clients, Frederick and Phyllis Watkins, for Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire, almost certainly around 1960 when he was assisting them with the renovation and refurbishment of the abbey; a project that he worked on sporadically until 1973. Frederick Baden Watkins wrote how very gifted Oliver was: 'Once he had an inspiration, he'd get a piece of paper and sketch it out. What could have taken me five years, would take him five minutes' (C. Castle, Oliver Messel: A Biography, London, 1986, p. 216). When a room was completed, Oliver would look to his own collection for furniture: 'I've got a pair of mirrors at Nymans that would look right there', and Watkins would buy them (ibid., p. 217). Furniture probably also came from Oliver's London house, Pelham Place, as he wrote: 'Poor Pelham Place, I gather, is now striped to the bone. George has gone down to Flaxley with another load' (ibid., p. 226).Two of these chairs were photographed in the Entrance Hall at Flaxley in 1973 (J. Lees-Milne, 'Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire - III: The Home of Mr. and Mrs. F.B. Watkins', Country Life, 12 April 1973, p. 980, fig. 2). The chairs with their Italian Altieri coat-of-arms complimented Oliver's large mural painting of an Italianate urn. A central arcaded recess with a Robert Adam-style doorway led from the entrance hall to the dining room where presumably the remainder of the suite was situated. Oliver's nephew Thomas Messel made a contemporary set of chairs modelled on the Altieri set for his own home at Bradley Court, Gloucestershire (J. Musson, 'Bradley Court, Gloucestershire', Country Life, 15 September 2005, pp. 133-134, fig. 5). In 1986, Thomas included this model of chair, both side and armchairs, in his firm's furniture range, which he named the 'Venetian' Cardinal Chair' (National Art Library, TL.Thom 1.1).The papal family of Altieri became extinct in 1955, with the death of the last prince, Prince Ludovico Altieri (1878-1955). It is not known how this set became part of the Messel collection but it is possible that they were collected by either Ludowig Messel or Leonard Messel- both enthusiastic collectors- in the early 20th century.The broad proportions of these chairs with their waisted upright back posts, solid shaped baluster splat, compass seat and cabriole legs are typical of high quality 'banister back' chairs of the 1730s. The arched crest rail has evolved from the milkmaid's yoke found in Chinese prototypes. The chair-back is slightly bent to ergonomically fit the back of the sitter. The introduction of the 'India back' - India or Indian being used to denote all of South and South East Asia - also sometimes called a 'bended', 'crook'd' or 'sweep' back chair is considered 'the most radical and far-reaching design innovation of the eighteenth century' (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p. 156). Related crest rails and splats can be found on a set of walnut chairs, 1734, supplied by Daniel How and Thomas Moore in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (ibid., p. 180, plate 4:73). Another example made in giltwood, 1730-40, was probably made for Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, for Stowe House, Buckinghamshire (ibid., p. 181, plate 4:75). The back of the splats of the present chairs have been chamfered to 'lighten' their appearance. These chairs are highly unusual for the carved decoration on the 'shoe' (where the splat joins the back of the drop-in seat) and the stylised claw and ball feet.