ABSTRACT
Paul Saunders (1722–71) of Soho Square, London, was a furniture maker, upholsterer and tapestry maker, who was appointed ‘Tapestry Maker to His Majesty’ in 1757 (V&A, 1984). In 1763 he sent a bill to the executors of the second Earl of Egremont for a set of ‘French Elbow Chairs’, which might well be the set of seven Louis XV style, Soho tapestry covered chairs, c. 1760, in the Carved Room at Petworth House. Saunders is known to have supplied tapestry pieces to the Egremont family, based on Francis Barlow’s illustrations for a 1666 edition of Aesop’s Fables, a popular source of upholstery designs. It is possible that these are the chairs illustrated in an 1865 watercolour-gouache painting of the Carved Room by the Hon. Mrs Percy (Madeline) Wyndham (Anon, 1997). A similar set of chairs can be found in The Saloon at Uppark House. The accounts at Uppark include an entry for £33.0.6 paid to Paul Saunders in 1761 for ‘tapestry’ for a set of Louis XV style English giltwood armchairs (Anon, 1989).
