Gillows, Lancaster, a pair of George III mahogany hall chairs, circa 1790, shield backs with painted heraldry of William Brooks of Whalley (1763-1846), dished boarded seats, tapered front legs united by H stretchers, one stamped 'Gillows Lancaster', 94cm high, 49cm wide, 45cm deep (2). Note: William Brooks was a cotton merchant and a banker and founder, in 1792, of the Banking House known as Cunliffe, Brooks and Co. which ultimately merged with Lloyds in 1900. His portrait hangs in Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. A set of fourteen hall chairs including two armchairs of identical design were supplied to Stephen Tempest for Broughton Hall, Yorkshire painted with the Tempest crest in 1789 and remain in the collection of that house, the initial design of 1788 for the Broughton chairs, showing them with fluted legs and without the stretcher, is illustrated in Lindsay Boynton (ed)., Gillow Furniture designs 1760-1800 (Royston, 1995), fig.254 and p.175. one of the armchairs is illustrated and the set described in Susan E. Stewart, Gillows of Lancaster & London 1730-1840, vol. I (Suffolk, 2008), pp.200/1. One of the set was also included in the 1991/2 Travelling Exhibition Gillow Chairs and Fashion, North West Museum Service, Blackburn, 1991 (Stephen V. Sartin et al.), and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue pp.17/19. An identical single example bearing the same heraldry appeared as Lot 430 in Halls of Shrewsbury Fine Funriture auction on 8th October 2014.