The chair is of exactly the same design as one shown by the Century Guild on their stand at the Liverpool International Exhibition, 1886. A photograph of the stand, taken by the London & County Photographic Co., shows the single chair on the left of the stand with a matching armchair nearby; both are upholstered in a fabric different to that on G59. (See also an illustration of the stand in The British Architect, Vol. XXVI, 1886, illustrated in article by Malcolm Haslam “A Pioneer of Art Nouveau; A H Mackmurdo”, Country Life, 6 March, 1975, p.576, illus.5).
The inscription “Boddington” on the label attached to G59 refers presumably to Henry Boddington, who commissioned extensive furnishings, decorative plaster-work and painted designs, stained glass and brass-work, from the Century Guild for his Cheshire country house, Pownall Hall. An article published in ‘The Art Journal’,1891 pp.329 – 335 and 353 – 357, reproduces a line-drawn illustration of the Dining Room (p.332) in which an armchair matching the single chair (upright, without arms) appears.
