A George III cream painted chair-back settee circa 1780, in the manner of Seddon, Sons & Shackleton

Probably Sir Nathaniel Acton, Livermere Hall, Suffolk, circa 1790
Transferred to Shrubland Park circa 1923 by the 5th Baron de Saumarez following the demolition of Livermere Hall;
Thence by descent to the 7th Baron de Saumarez

The shape of the individual shield backs and the painted decoration of this settee are both particularly associated with the important and distinguished firm of cabinet makers founded by George Seddon (1727-1801) in the mid 18th century, in Aldersgate Street, London and which continued there until the 1830s.

Seddon was a liveryman of the Joiner`s Company in 1737 and Master in 1795. A reference in the Annual Register (1768) refers to Seddon as `One of the most eminent cabinet makers in London'. In the same year, he is also recorded as employing under licence 100 tradesmen. In 1786 a German novelist Sophie von la Roche noted in her travel journal that the firm employed over `400 apprentices including glass grinders, bronze-casters, carvers, gilders, painters, drapers and upholsterers', all of whom worked at the Aldersgate Street premises.

George Seddon trained his sons Thomas (bound as a cabinet-maker 1775-82) and George II (bound as an upholsterer 1777-84) and both were taken into partnership about 1785. During the years c.1788-98 his son in law, Thomas Shackleton joined the firm which became known as Seddon, Sons & Shackleton.

George I died in 1801. However the firm continued sucessfully under family management for a further twenty years or so winning commissions from many distinguished English and foreign clients.

A documented armchair ( the original bill survives) supplied by Seddon Sons & Shackleton with painted decoration and a back similar in form to those on the offered lot was commissioned by D.Tupper of Hautville House, Guernsey and is now in the collects ion of the Victoria and Albert Museum, (illustrated in Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, p.133, pl. P/7). The invoice was reproduced by the London dealers M. Harris & Sons, Old English Furniture, 1935, part 3, pp. 386-387.

See C. Gilbert, `Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, pp. 1-29 for a further and full discussion of the firm.

The settee is shown in situ in The Boudoir, Shrubland Park, ( from the album of the de Saumaurez family (Country Life Picture library).  A pair of painted satinwood and carved giltwood pier tables (lot 96) which also have close affinities with the furniture of Seddon Sons & Shackleton have provenance from Livermere Hall and it would therefore seem likely that the present lot shares this provenance.