A rare pair of George II blue-japanned side chairs in the manner of Giles Grendey, with shell-carved arched toprails and drop-in seats, on cabriole front legs joined by turned and waved stretchers, with chinoiserie decoration throughout.

Giles Grendey (1693 – 1780) was a leading London cabinet maker, born in Wooton-under –Edge in Gloucestershire, and was apprenticed to the London joiner William Sherborne, becoming a freeman in 1716. Taking his own apprentices by 1726, Grendey was elected to the Livery of the Joiners' Company in 1729. His first workshop was at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, moving to St. John's Square, Clerkenwell in 1772 where he developed a thriving export trade. It was reported in various newspapers on August 7, 1731, including the Daily Post and Daily Advertiser, that a fire which started on adjacent premises to Mr Grendey 'a Cabinet-maker and Chair-maker' caused him to loose furniture to the value of £1,000, which he 'had packed for Exportation against the next morning'. Indeed his most famous recorded commission came from the Duke of Infantado, Lazcano, northern Spain, who acquired from Grendey a suite of some seventy pieces of scarlet japanned furniture, which included cabinets, tables, torcheres, mirrors and chairs.

Comparisons: Christopher Gilbert, Marked London Furniture, 1996, p.248, pl.448
Hans Huth, Lacquer of the West, 1971, pl.88, 89
Lanto Synge, Mallett Millenium,1999, p.84, pl. 82
Christie's London, Important English Furniture, 10 July 2003, lot 132
Sotheby's New York, Celebration of the English Country House, 7 April 04, lot 179 (F10-148)

Price: please enquire