A SET OF NINE GEORGE III MAHOGANY HALL CHAIRSCIRCA 1780Variously painted with crests, with saddle seats each 98cm high, 50cm wide, 49cm deep overall Provenance:Property of The Hon. Catherine Mary Wass, OBE (1942-2021) inherited from the 7th Viscount Gort in 1975 from Hamsterley Hall, Co. Durham In 1972, a pair of near-identical chairs was shown by Country Life in the Entrance Hall of the private apartments at Penshurst (M. Binney, 'Penshurst Place, Kent - IV: The Seat of Viscount de L'isle, VC, KG', Country Life, 4 May 1972, p. 1091, fig. 3). It is therefore possible that chairs from this set were taken to Penshurst upon the marriage of The Hon. Jacqueline Vereker to William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L'isle and Dudley.The plates contain crests relating to William Surtees Altham COOK (1813-1887) and his wife who he married in 1850, Henrietta Addles MOULTON-BARRETT (1809-1860). Major William Surtees Altham COOK was the second son of Col. John COOK (-1829) of the 28th Light Dragoons by Elizabeth SURTEES (1783-1862) daughter of Aubone SURTEES of Hauxley Hall, Northumberland by Mary ALTHAM.Henrietta Addles MOULTON-BARRETT was born at Hope End, Colwall Herefordshire the second daughter of Edward Emmanuel MOULTON later MOULTON-BARRETT (1785-1857) of Cinnamon Hill, Jamaica where he was a wealthy plantation owner, by Mary Graham CLARKE (1781-1828) daughter of John GRAHAM-CLARKE by Arabella Altham EBB. Most notably she was the sister of the writer Elizabeth Moulton Barrett BROWNING (1806-1861) who in 1846 had married the poet Robert BROWNING (1812-1889).For similar hall chairs by Gillows see S.E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. I, pp. 200-201, pl. 173-174, and L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs, London, 1995, pl. 253. A pair of comparable chairs bearing the arms of the Ruddle family is at Dudmaston, Shropshire (NT 813752). A related set of six mahogany shield back hall chairs sold Dreweatts, 30th June 2015, Lot 58 (£6,820 inc. premium). Another pair of chairs sold Christie's, London, 15th September 2005, Lot 113 (£5,040 inc. premium).