"ARMCHAIR. ENGLISH; about 1759. Gilt wood with modern crimson silk damask.\nPart of a set of seat furniture, comprising four gilded \u201Clion\u201D sofas and six armchairs, which are very early examples of furniture designed in the neo-classical style. The remainder of the set is on loan to Kenwood House, and is displayed in the library.\nThe set was designed in the late 1750\u2019s by the architect James Stuart for the drawing-room at Spencer House, the first Earl Spencer\u2019s Palladian mansion overlooking Green Park, London. Stuart had recently returned from Greece, where he had made drawings of the Athenian antiquities, and in the drawing-room at Spencer House he not only painted the walls and ceiling, but also designed all the furnishings in the classical style.\nThe sides of the sofas are formed by griffins or winged lions with long necks. The griffin supports were inspired by a marble Hellenistic throne, like the one in the Arundel collection, which was presented to the University of Oxford in 1755, and can now be seen at the Ashmolean Museum. The sofas and chairs are supported on \u201Clion\u201D legs, their seat and frames being heavily fluted and their backs ornamented with guilloche borders. \nIn the 18th century Spencer House was considered to be one of the most splendidly furnished houses in Europe, and the furnishings were described by Arthur Young in his \u201CTour through Southern Counties\u201D 1772 as \u201Castonishingly beautiful\u201D and superior in \u201Crichness, elegance and taste\u201D to anything he had ever seen.\nBought with a contribution from the Brigadier Clark Fund, through the National Art-Collections Fund. [1981]\nARMCHAIR\nENGLISH; ABOUT 1759\nGilt wood with modern crimson silk damask\n\nPart of a set of seat furniture designed by the architect James Stuart (1713-88) for the Drawing Room at Spencer House, London. The remainder of the set is on loan to Kenwood House and is displayed in the Library.\n\nBought with a contribution from the Brigadier Clark Fund through that National Art-Collections Fund. [pre October 2000]"@en . . . .