A CONTINENTAL WALNUT AND TAPESTRY UPHOLSTERED SETTEELATE 17TH AND LATERThe arched padded back and seat covered in blue ground verdure tapestry, the moulded scroll armrests supported by acanthus carved scroll stiles on cabriole legs and paw feet headed by harebells, the apron with scrolled foliate centre127cm high, 124cm wide, 65cm deepProvenance: Formerly the Messel family collection in the Long Drawing Room at Nymans Removed to Holmstead Manor in 1947 after the disastrous fire and thence by descent to Oliver Messel Purchased from Oliver Messel by Frederick and Phyllis Watkins for Flaxley AbbeyLiterature:'Nymans - II, Sussex: The Residence of Lieut.-Colonel Leonard Messel', Country Life, 17 September 1932, p. 323, fig. 7.This settee was acquired around 1960 by Frederick and Phyllis Watkins from their interior decorator, Oliver Messel (1904-78), for Flaxley Abbey. It was photographed by Country Life in September 1932 at Oliver's family home, Nymans House, West Sussex, in the Long-Drawing Room. It formed part of Oliver's inheritance, either after 1947 when Nymans burnt down, or after 1960, when his mother, Maud Frances, daughter of the well-known Punch artist, Linley Sambourne, died. Messel's parents, Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Messel and Maud Frances succeeded to Nymans in 1915. They set about Nymans' external reconstruction from what appeared to be a Victorian house to its original antecedents as a medieval manor house aided by architects, Norman Evill, and from 1920, Walter Tapper. The furniture at Nymans was acquired by Colonel and Mrs. Messel to complement the 'medieval' exterior and interiors.This walnut settee is in the baroque-style of the late 17th/early 18th-centuries. It has the tall arched, sloping and upholstered back, scroll arms and 'horsebone' or 'broken' reverse scroll legs fashionable in this period, reflecting the style of Daniel Marot (1663-1752), the French emigré designer who worked closely with William and Mary both in Holland and England. However, it is almost certainly a pastiche of several period features probably made in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. It is unusual for seat-furniture of supposedly this period to have scroll legs terminating in lion paw feet and forward-facing back legs break every rule of English chair design. The earliest design of such legs identified to date can be seen on a console table by William Jones from The Gentlemens or Builders Companion (1739), plate 29 (ed. S. Weber, William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 517, fig. 18:70). Furthermore, unlike chairs from this period, the arm-uprights scroll outwards rather than inwards (see A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714: From Charles II to Queen Anne, chapter 8), and there is a gap between the chair back and seat which seems to be uncharacteristic for settees of this period.品相报告: (fragile)