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Chair Manufactured by George Morant & Son (firm fl. 1790-circa 1913) Oak, inlaid with holly; original ‘Berlin’ needlework and brass castors 451⁄4 in (115 cm) x 18 in (46 cm) x 18 in (46 cm) English (London), probably between 1841 and 1851
MARKED:
'FROM / G. MORANT / 97 NEWBOND ST / LONDON' (stencilled on canvas below seat) and 'COPE & COLLINSON PATENT’ (on the front castors). PROVENANCE: Matthew Robinson Boulton or Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, Tew Park, Oxfordshire; thence by descent; sold Christie's, Great Tew Park, 27-29 May 1987, day 1, lot 193, bt. Blairman's; private collection. According to Hugh Roberts, the stencilled mark on this chair was used between 1841 or 1842 and 1851; see catalogue for Great Tew Park, p. 21. There appear to have been two principal elements to Morant’s work at Tew Park. The first campaign was for furniture closely echoing that invoiced in 1817 by George Bullock; see, for example, Great Tew Park, lots 36, 163 and 196. The second group, while harmonising with Bullock’s use of oak and holly, is more characteristic of mid-century design; see, for example, Great Tew Park, lots 197-202. The present chair belongs to the latter group. The Gothic design suggests that the chair may have been supplied for the gothic library, designed in the early 1830s by Thomas Fulljames (1808-74).. George Morant (1770-1839) founded his eponymous firm in 1790 and was ‘Ornamental Painter and Paper-hanging manufacturer to their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge’; see Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert (eds), The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 622-23.The firm later went through several changes of name, before being bought by Lenygon & Co, who incorporated the firm of Lenygon & Morant in 1915. |
