Lot 126

The joints of most chairs are firm but there is a little lateral movement in one side chair arising from a little looseness in the joints between the front and rear seat rails and the supports. The toprail of this chair is also a little loose.

To several chairs, the joints fixing the toprails to the supports have been later reinforced with screws or dowels driven through from the rear sides of the supports. This has been done very discreetly on some chairs (very well matched for colour and barely visible) but more crudely on others, with screwheads exposed (and countersunk on one chair). There is some wear and minor losses around some toprail joints.

One elbow chair has three repaired breaks to one arm (at each end and in the centre) and the other elbow chair has one repaired break to one arm. Four chairs have old repairs to fractures around seat rail joints (all stable).

The frames show general wear with mostly light knocks and scuffs consistent with age and use. The patina is a blend of early polish and later selective repolishing and varnishing, with some unevenness in the latter; it shows typical use-related wear.

The leather is old but probably not original (likely later nineteenth century). Across most of the set it shows a fairly consistent degree of wear, scratches, light cracking, and occasional more pronounced marks and blemishes (including a couple of small punctures) and scuffing around corners, but the seat of one elbow chair is heavily worn (and cat-scratched?) to one side, with bursting holes to its rear corner. The seat of the other elbow chair is in better condition but a little more worn that those of the side chairs. The drop-in seats of the side chairs remain fairly evenly supportive but the sprung stuff-over seats of the elbow chairs are uneven in support.



The opinions expressed in the condition reports are a guide only and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Prospective buyers are encouraged to seek further information or request additional images during our pre-sale period where Leonard Joel staff are available for advice. Please note condition reports can be amended during the pre-sale period, so we strongly suggest any interested bidders check the published condition report available on the website before the auction commences. Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

George Fife Angas (1789–1879), Adelaide and Angaston, South Australia
Thence by descent to Robert Fife Howard Angas (1918–1997)
Sold from the estate of the above, Theodore Bruce, Adelaide, circa 1999
Private collection, Adelaide

An elbow chair, of NSW origin and dated circa 1830, with the same unusual and distinctive foliate carving to the arms as that on the present elbow chairs is illustrated in K. Fahy, C. Simpson, and A. Simpson, Nineteenth Century Australian Furniture (1985), p. 426, no. 292. A side chair, dated circa 1835 and attributed to Tasmania origin, of generally similar design and features to the present chairs is illustrated in K. Fahy and A. Simpson, Australian Furniture: Pictorial History and Dictionary 1788–1938 (1988), p. 258, no. 174.