A Matched Set of Six South Lancashire / North Cheshire Oak Backstools

A matched set of six oak backstools, each with arched cresting rails and panelled backs carved with vigorous foliate motifs—tulips, scrolling vines, lunettes and leafage—above plain boarded seats. Block-and-turned forelegs are joined by a boldly repeated bobbin/baluster front stretcher and plain side and rear stretchers; back legs are square and raked in the regional manner.
The form and decorative vocabulary accord with workshops active in South Lancashire and North Cheshire in the later 17th century, as discussed by Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (Woodbridge, 1979), pp. 484–485. The present group illustrates the expected variation within the type: individual back panels display differing but related patterns while maintaining consistent proportions, turnings and construction.
Provenance: Private Devonshire collection.
Condition: matched as a set; some repairs and restorations consistent with age and long domestic use; good historic colour and surface.
Literature
Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (1979), pp. 484–485, for discussion and comparable South Lancashire / North Cheshire backstools.