Designed by the little known artist L. Loeffler, eight of the chairs had been made and stamped Howard & Sons London 1899, while the remaining two had been crafted a couple of years earlier in Germany, stamped O.B. Friedrich Dresden 1897.
They had carved finials over an upholstered panel back, stuffover seats and were raised on shaped tapering leg supports. The back legs were a virtuoso piece of design as the tapering section above the foot was cut right back leaving only a narrow section on which to support the seated person’s weight.
Estimated at £3000-5000 and in need of re-upholstering, the privately consigned entry was taken to £3900 by a dealer. “We had hoped the chairs would do a bit better,” said Ambrose specialist Laura McCarthy.
While the austere Victorian dining chairs may not have been the most commercial furniture entry, the rounded contemporary feel of an Art Deco Cloud three-piece cream leather suite with walnut banding met with more enthusiasm. Not as enthusiastic as that for a similar suite with additional footstool that made £2300 at Ambrose’s rooms last year, but sufficient for the suite to take £1400 from a dealer.
A crewel work embroidered textile from Tashkent, Afghanistan, (5ft 5in by 7ft 9in (1.66m x 2.36m), c.1900, was one of two textiles to exceed expectations. Catalogued as a possible 19th century bedspread, it swept past its £80-120 guideline to sell to a dealer at £1000, while a Mariano Fortuny Venetian velvet apricot-coloured coat, took £500 from the trade.
Ambrose, Loughton, July 19-20
Buyer’s premium: 12.5 per cent
A choice of chairs from Victorian to Art Deco
THE Essex auctioneers Ambrose had hoped the unusual top lot in their 561-lot sale on 19-20 July would fetch more, but bidding on the set of ten gothic-style Victorian mahogany dining chairs was hampered by their non-commercial design.
