Thread: A tale of dolphins and intrigue.

A caller enquired one day if I would be interested in making a few copies of pieces of furniture for a 'client'. I replied that I may be interested, subject to visiting the client and viewing the furniture to be copied.

I was informed that wouldn't be possible, but they could arrange to have the furniture made available for my inspection elsewhere. At this point, I would normally have said "Thank you, but no thanks". However, my curiosity had been piqued, so I made the appointment to view the furniture.

My Mother enjoys antiques and what I do generally, so I invited her along for the outing to 'hold the other end of the tape'. We arrived at the industrial lock-up at the appointed time and went inside. Sitting alone in the middle of the vast unit were a single giltwood bergere chair and a matching giltwood sofa in the Regency taste. My Mother "Oooo-ed" and "Ahhh-ed" appropriately and I spent a few hours sketching and jotting down measurements. When I had finished, I thanked the Man with the Key and we left.

I worked out a price for supplying two finished, but un-upholstered chairs and two sofas including newly cast brass feet and castors. I was contacted by the Mysterious Man about a week later and he accepted my estimate without hesitation and agreed to the payment of a deposit.

The suite of furniture is very much in the fashion beloved by the flamboyant Prince Regent (later, George IV) who decorated the Royal Pavilion at Brighton between the years 1815 and 1822 with lavishly gilt fantasies such as pineapples and grotesque dolphins etc.

I had heard about a suite of dolphin seating belonging to a titled family and I had noticed the frames were stamped with the name 'B. Harmer', but in those days before Google, I couldn't discover any more details about it.

The frames were made out of beech (as were the originals) and it didn't take long to get them to the stage where they required gilding. I can gild with some of the best, but the pieces of furniture were large and took up far too much room and anyway, I wanted to get onto something fresh. The frames went out to a good friend who is a fantastic carver and gilder and this type of work was right up his street.

One evening I dropped in to see my Mother on the way home from work and she was very excited about an article she had read while in her dentist's waiting room that morning. She handed me the copy of Country Life she had borrowed from the dentist. There, in black and white, was a picture of one of the dolphin chairs! A suite of dolphin seating consisting of two chairs and two sofas formerly belonging to Viscount Courtenay, the Earl of Devon had apparently been sold at auction by Christies of London.

How curious! Was this the original Dolphin Suite that was sold at auction, or the one I had made? Was it a straight out scam, an insurance rip-off, or had Lord Courtenay fallen on hard times and replaced the valuable originals with somewhat cheaper copies? I never did uncover the facts.

Christies estimated the Dolphin Suite at £80,000-120,000. It sold on Thursday the 5th of July 1990 for £242,000.


The patterns for the Dolphin Suite.


One of the dolphin arm supports.


One of the sofa frames in the white.






The article and photo that appeared in Country Life on the 2nd of August 1990.






Two pieces from the Dolphin Suite sold by Christies.