Metamorphic Library Steps / Seat (c. 1755 England)

A RARE SET OF GEORGE II MAHOGANY METAMORPHIC LIBRARY STEPS/SEAT.
Attributed to Thomas Chippendale.
England.
Circa 1755.

The rectangular padded drop-in seat covered in green leather, on ten turned legs chamfered on the inner sides, joined by turned stretchers, on brass castors, enclosing three fixed graduated treads fitted between the legs, with two arched end panels, the two turned legs to one end with a chamfered outer surface to allow for balance upon up-turning.

Similar later examples are recorded at Dumfries House, seat of the Crichton Earls of Dumfries and later the Marquesses of Bute, where a set of metamorphic library steps attributed to Alexander Peter C. 1759, made to a design for a metamorphic library-seat in Thomas Chippendale’s 1750’s ‘Modern fashion’, displays the same series of three fixed, graduated treads and the same chamfering to the inner corners of the ten legs, and at Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire, ‘The Dictionary of English Furniture’, Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, London 1924-27, pp.288-289.

Measurements:
20” (51cms) High; 44.5” (113 cms) Wide; 19.5” (49.5 cms) Deep.

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