George II oak hall chairs

A set of fourteen George II oak hall chairs, painted in grisaille and colours with the arms and Ducal coronet of Peregrine, 2nd Duke of Ancaster (1686-1742) and his wife, Jane Brownlow (1689-1736).

English, early 18th Century.

The backs are decorated with a coat of arms (showing Bertie quartering Winn, Ufford and Willoughby, with an inescutcheon for Brownlow) under a ducal coronet, held by supporters (a friar and a wild man). On the seat are the initials ‘P, J and B’ and on the front, the Willoughby de Eresby crest of a Saracen’s head.

The chairs are recorded in the 1813 inventory in the Great Hall (the Vanbrugh Hall) as ’10 Hall Chairs painted with the Bertie arms’. They are recorded in the 1910 inventory as being a set of sixteen.