Highly unusual lyre-back armchair. English, circa 1795. Carlton Hobbs LLC.
The use of the form of the ancient lyre in the square back of a chair was an innovation of the first phase of post-Rococo Neo-Classicism in the second part of the Eighteenth Century. The lyre itself was derived from depictions of the instrument in Greek and Roman vases; these vases were central to the revival of interest in the antique that exercised a profound influence on the development of the decorative arts in the period.
Apollo Cup, circa 480-470 BCE; Delphi Museum, Greece.