Untitled
Giles Grendey (1693 - 1780)
Category
Furniture
Date
1751
Materials
Mahogany, beech frame, textile
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 731628
Summary
A set of fourteen mahogany chairs, by Giles Grendey (1693-1780) London 1751. Commissioned by Henry Hoare (1705-1785). The shaped backs modeled as stylized pierced shells with applied scroll and floral carving. The over stuffed seats raised on cabriole legs with acanthus knees and claw and ball feet, the rear legs with acanthus knees. The armchairs with acanthus carved scrolled terminals and down swept supports with further applied carved detail.
Full description
British and Irish Furniture Makers online lists various accounts at Stourhead, (Henry Hoare). 1746–56 account book payments, including 29 April 1746 £64 for chairs and March 27 1751, £133 2s 9d; June 24 1752, £10 17s. [Wilts. RO, MS 383/6]. Also Barn Elms, Surrey (Richard Hoare). 1732 bill for chest of drawers, ‘Burow Table’. dressing glasses, chimney glasses, ‘Wrighting Disk’, etc. Total £38 14s 6d; 1732 bill for wall sconces, gold frames for glasses, tables, chest, etc. Total £14 16s 6d; 1737 bill for dressing chair, cabinet with glass doors, etc. Total £21 17s; 1739 bill for alterations to furniture, glass frames, etc. Total £17 6s 6d. [V & A Lib., English manuscripts, tradesmen's bills, Sir R. Hoare, 1731– 54, 86 NN3] There is a second set of twelve chairs, almost identical to this set at Stourhead. These have the addition of parcel gilt detail to the applied carving. It is unclear which set are invoiced in 1746 and which in 1751. Lucy Wood, in her book 'The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery: Volume I' (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2008), references and illustrates a similar chair: ‘The Hinton chairs are all stamped ‘W.F.’, a mark that recurs on chairs of another pattern associated with Grendey, with a pierced shell back (Fig. 175) – the type of the well-known suite at Stourhead, thought to relate to payments by Henry Hoare to Grendey. The unusual carving on the knees is replicated on a mahogany suite and square upholstered seats and backs from Gunton Park, Norfolk, parts of which bear Grendey’s shorter label combined with the stamp ‘W B’; while ‘W F’ is again recorded on some chairs of the same model in walnut.’ A settee is illustrated in Christopher Gilbert’s 'Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall: Volume II' (W.S. Maney & Son Ltd, 1978)¸ fig. 326, p.326. This settee is also illustrated in Herbert Cescinsky, 'English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century: Vol. II' (The Waverley Book Company Limited, London), fig. 41, p.49. Cescinsky illustrates a number of related chairs in figures 38-40, pp.47-48. Giles Grendey (1693–1780) was born in Gloucestershire in 1693 and, in 1708/9 he was apprenticed to William Sherborne in London. Grendey completed his apprenticeship in 1716 and became a freeman of the city. By 1726 he was taking on his own apprentices and was recognised as the most accomplished English cabinetmaker incorporating ‘japanned’ decoration. Grendey’s workshop was in Aylesbury House, St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell. He labelled some of his products and one of his surviving labels advertised that he: ‘MAKES and Sells all Sorts of CABINET GOODS, Chairs, Tables, Glasses, etc.’ Newspaper accounts from 1731 indicate the status which Grendey had achieved, as it was recorded that, early in the morning on 3rd August 1731, his workshop had a fire, which destroyed furniture to the value of £1,000 which he: ‘had pack'd for Exportation against the next morning’. Fortunately, both his premises and his stock were insured, but this record underlines the importance of the export market for his business: notably in Spain (Duke of Infantado); in Italy (for the King of Naples); and in Portugal. James Weedon (January 2018)
Provenance
Invoiced to Henry Hoare either in 1746 or 1751 by Giles Grendey. Stourhead; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of the contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt. (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Makers and roles
Giles Grendey (1693 - 1780), cabinetmaker
References
Wood, Lucy 'Upholstered furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery' 2 vols New Haven & London: Yale University Press 2009 Dictionary of British and Irish furniture makers online (1660-1840) FHS 2017 Gilbert, Christopher Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall : 1978. Cescinsky, Herbert, English furniture from Gothic to Sheraton., 1937