A George II carved walnut side chair in the manner of Giles Grendey The shaped back above a vase shaped splat and bowed drop-in seat upholstered in teal silk damask, on cabriole shell and trailing bellflower carved legs, on claw and ball feet, stamped W.B to the back seat rail, 55cm wide, 50cm deep, 100cm high, seat height 48cm. The chair offered here is virtually identical to a set of six sold Christie’s London, 15 Nov 2017, lot 153 and a single example sold Christie’s New York, 22 October 2010, lot 386. All these chairs are closely related to a set of six in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the celebrated Clerkenwell cabinet-maker and upholsterer Giles Grendey (d. 1780), two of which carry labels 'GILES GRENDEY, In St. John's-Square, Clerkenwell, LONDON, Makes and Sells all Sorts of Cabinet- Goods, Chairs and Glasses' (illustrated C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 242, fig. 434). A further labelled suite of similar seat-furniture by Grendey and formerly in the collection of the late J. S. Phipps, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 21 November 1981, lots 233-235. Another chair with identical back is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954, vol. I, p. 254, fig. 85. A number of chairs from Grendey's workshop bear the stamp of his journeymen, some of which are recorded in the archives preserved in the Public Records Office. A suite of chairs supplied by Grendey at Gunton Park, Norfolk (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, London, 1996, p. 243, fig. 437) is identically stamped 'WB' and this stamp probably relates to William House, employed at Grendey's Clerkenwell workshop from 14 April 1747 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, pp.371-2). Similar stamps 'WF' and ‘WH' appear on numerous chairs of known Grendey models, including a set of dining-chairs with identical legs and scallop backs almost certainly supplied by Grendey to John, 1st Earl Poulett for Hinton House, Somerset, and the suite of chairs at Longford Castle, Wiltshire.