A GEORGE II CARVED WALNUT OPEN ARMCHAIR ATTRIBUTED TO DANIEL BELL AND THOMAS MOORE, CIRCA 1735102cm high, 72cm wide, 59cm deep overallProvenance:Private Collection, LondonRetailer's label for Norman AdamsSee Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, page 180, plate 4:73, for a related chair with strikingly similar legs, supplied by Daniel Bell and Thomas Moore, with a November 1734 bill to the 'Honourable Counsellor Rider' of Sandon Hall, Stafford, 'To ten hansome Wallnuttree Chairs broad banister backs cutt in shape with scrole tops finneard with very good wood, loose compass seats, stuft in white Hessings with rich carved fore feet with Lyons faces on Ye Knees and Lyons Paws...with scrolls...to ye fore-rails...£27.10.00'.Whilst this armchair displays similar features to the Sandon Hall chair, such as the legs and compass seat, the exceptional piercing and carving to the back of this armchair and the carving to the arms and the seat rail seem more balanced with the quality and scale of the base.Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, records: Daniel Bell 'St Martin's Lane, London, cabinet maker 1724-1734,...recorded in partnership with Thomas Moore as early as 1724 when the firm supplied goods to Benjamin Mildmay, Earl Fitzwalter for Moulsham Hall between 1724-34; Thomas Moore is recorded as 'London, cabinetmaker 1734-d1738...at St Martin's Lane. The younger James Moore, son of the Royal cabinetmaker, died in 1734, and it seems probably that Thomas was a member of the family who at that date or earlier had entered into partnership with Daniel Bell.'See also Christie's Books, Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection, pages 80 and 207, plate 58, cat no. 52, for a pair of George II walnut side chairs, the legs with related acanthus drapery, bold lion masks and paw feet. Closely related chairs are seen in the 1741 painting by William Verelst of the Gough Family, and these Gerstenfeld chairs are also referenced as prototypes for an identical Chinese model in rosewood. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has in it's collection giltwood seat furniture with some related features made circa 1730 by chair maker Thomas Roberts junior made for Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall, Norfolk. These Houghton sofas and chairs are carved naturalistically with lion's masks and lion's legs and feet.