1740-1760, each with scrolled and shell carved crest over a figured splat with scrolled volutes and spurred base, shell carved legs with trifid feet, red leather upholstered compass seats, seat rail interiors and matching original slip seats marked "III" and "XI", 42-1/2 x 20 x 17 in.

Provenance: The Rawle Family of Pennsylvania, possible line of descent: Francis Rawle (1729-1761), Philadelphia; William Rawle (1759-1836), Philadelphia, son; Francis William Rawle (1795-1881), Philadelphia and Fairfield, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, son; James Rawle (1842-1912), "Castlefinn," near Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, son; thence by descent in the family; Christie's, New York, Property from a Pennsylvania Collection, January 19, 2018, lot 156, sold for $137,500; Important Private Virginia Estate

Note: According to the Christie's lot essay (January 19, 2018, lot 156), the chairs offered here relate closely to "the practices of the 'Wistar armchair' shop as defined and discussed by Alan Miller. These include compass seats with applied rims and trifid feet with raised central and side panels, with the graining on the splat and its more complex shaping illustrating developments of the shop in the 1740s and 1750s (Alan Miller, "Flux in Design and Method in Early Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia Furniture," American Furniture 2014, Luke Beckerdite, ed. (Milwaukee, 2014), pp. 60-64). Other chairs possibly from the same original set include a chair marked V (Sotheby's, New York, 26 September 2008, lot 62) and, with variant knee returns, a chair marked II at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 25.115.14).

The chairs were acquired from a Rawle-family descendant whose line included Francis Rawle (1729-1761), a possible first owner for the set represented by the pair in the present lot. He was the son of William Rawle (d. 1741), a lawyer and original member of the Library Company. Francis married Rebecca Warner in 1756, an event that may have occasioned the commission of this set of chairs. This pair of chairs were likely inherited by his son, William Rawle (1759-1836) , a prominent lawyer who was appointed United State Attorney for Pennsylvania by President George Washington. The chairs continued to descend to his son Francis William Rawle (1795-1881) and Francis' son, James Rawle (1842-1912), President of J.G. Brill Co., at the time, the largest manufacturers of street cars (Frank Marshall Eastman, Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania: A History, 1623-1923, vol. 4, pp. 56-58; see also Lita H. Solis-Cohen, "Living with antiques: Castlefinn Farm, the Pennsylvania home of Mrs. James Rawle II," The Magazine Antiques (March 1971), pp. 386-390)."

(see https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6125008)

both in a fine state of overall preservation, one chair with patch repair to volute of splat, later nails and pinning at shoe, proper left side with repair to stile at leg joint, other leg with some infill, seat rail with metal L brackets added, minor repairs along front of seat rail, one front leg with minor thin cracks; other chair with patch repair at lip of shoe, small area of loss on proper right seat rail lip, minor repairs to seat rail, front legs with 1/4 inch pad applied; both with scattered imperfections and other general wear from age and use

Per Christie's condition report: old dark patina, slightly waxed but good color. Patch approximately 3 1/2 inches long to proper right volute of splat on one chair (chair marked III). Shrinkage crack through shell knee carving of proper right front leg. Shoe appears to be secured with very tiny pins. Metal brackets to underside of back rail. The other (chair marked XI) with small patch repair to bottom right corner of front of shoe. Face patch to proper left rear leg at juncture with stile. Underside of front legs each with 1/4 inch high pads. Please note that if pads are removed foot height would be approximately the same as foot height of the other chair.