This suite of furniture supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Sir Robert Burdett in 1766 for Foremarke Hall in Derbyshire, comprised armchairs, window seats and at least one sofa. The suite was most probably delivered prior to February 1766 when Sir Robert's account books acknowledged a payment on 17 February 1766 'To Mr Chippendale cabbenet Maker for Chairs, for the Country.....£ 37 - 4 - 0.  Foremarke Hall was extensively remodelled between 1759 and 1762 to the designs of David Hiorns (c. 1712-1776) and John Cobb, Samuel Smith and Thomas Chippendale were among the contractors employed. Accounts suggest that Sir Robert spent close to, if not more than, £1000 with Chippendale including the aforementioned seat furniture as well as overmantel mirrors, globe lamps and a fine secretaire cabinet. The suite of seat furniture was recorded in the Large Drawing Room at Foremark in 1892, and described as 'The Green and White Painted Cabriole Suite'. 

These elegant chairs, lightly enriched with carved Roman acanthus detailing after the antique manner, epitomise the George III 'French' fashion introduced by Thomas Chippendale in the 1760s. Their voluted and serpentine frames relate in particular to Chippendale's drawings for chairs of around 1761, some of which were engraved for his The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1762. Stylistically these chairs appear to fit in with Chippendale's other documented commissions of the period - notably a set of ten armchairs and three sofas supplied to Sir Lawrence Dundas for 19 Arlington Street and invoicedon 29 January 1766 as '10 Large French Armchairs very richly carv'd and gilt in Burnish'd Gold £13.0'.  A related suite in mahogany were ordered for Lady Winn's antechamber at Nostell Priory, invoiced on 15 October 1767 as '10 Mahaogany french arm Chairs'.

 

The Chippendale Society, A New Chippendale Discovery - A Settee and Two Chairs from Foremarke Hall, 1 October 2019

Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, 1978