Mahogany side chair with upholstered seat.
Identifier
FPF151
Title
Mahogany side chair with upholstered seat.
Date
1880-1910
Description
Mahogany side chair with a pierced splat and stuff-over seat.
Full Description
This mahogany side chair has a shaped crest rail with rounded corners, which is carved with a central stylised anthemion, acanthus leaves and floret scrolls. The back posts are tapering and fluted. The flared pierced splat has five vertical struts, which join a ‘shoe’ at the rear of a rectangular stuff-over seat, covered in a modern blue and cream Greek key pattern fabric. The chair is raised on turned and fluted inverted-baluster legs headed by blocks and with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top), joined by turned fluted H-form stretchers. There is a rear stretcher set slightly higher.
This chair is in the Chippendale style of the 1760s to 1770s but is a late 19th century fake, as demonstrated by the legs which are thinner than would be expected in the 18th century, and this has resulted in the need for stretchers which would be unusual on an 18th century chair of this quality. The carving is also rather mean for such a grand chair. The maker has re-used old seat rails, presumably to deceive customers into believing the chair to be an antique. Judging by the price, £9 5s, paid by Frederick Parker & Sons in 1925, they believed they were buying a genuine 18th century chair.
The chair is after a Chippendale model supplied to Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire (c. 1773), and Goldsborough Hall (c. 1772) and Newby Hall, both in Yorkshire (c. 1772-75), and possibly to Lansdowne House (1769) and David Garrick’s apartments in the Adelphi (1772), both in London (Gilbert, 1978).
The legs are possibly inspired by those found on a set of six open armchairs supplied by Chippendale in 1768 for the library at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (NT 959722).
This chair is in the Chippendale style of the 1760s to 1770s but is a late 19th century fake, as demonstrated by the legs which are thinner than would be expected in the 18th century, and this has resulted in the need for stretchers which would be unusual on an 18th century chair of this quality. The carving is also rather mean for such a grand chair. The maker has re-used old seat rails, presumably to deceive customers into believing the chair to be an antique. Judging by the price, £9 5s, paid by Frederick Parker & Sons in 1925, they believed they were buying a genuine 18th century chair.
The chair is after a Chippendale model supplied to Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire (c. 1773), and Goldsborough Hall (c. 1772) and Newby Hall, both in Yorkshire (c. 1772-75), and possibly to Lansdowne House (1769) and David Garrick’s apartments in the Adelphi (1772), both in London (Gilbert, 1978).
The legs are possibly inspired by those found on a set of six open armchairs supplied by Chippendale in 1768 for the library at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (NT 959722).
Condition
The chair has been stripped and resurfaced.
One foot has been replaced.
One foot has been replaced.
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 98
W. 59
D. 54
W. 59
D. 54
Parker Numbers
Plastic label ‘OM 6005’.
4401.
4401.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons in July 1925 for £9.5.0.
Notes
C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, pp. 88-89, figs. 142-143; p. 90, figs. 144-5; p. 91, figs. 147-149.
See also A. Bowett, J. Lomax, Thomas Chippendale 1718-1779: A Celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design. Catalogue of the Tercentenary Exhibition, Leeds City Museum, 2018, pp. 112-115, no. 6.9.
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/959722
See also A. Bowett, J. Lomax, Thomas Chippendale 1718-1779: A Celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design. Catalogue of the Tercentenary Exhibition, Leeds City Museum, 2018, pp. 112-115, no. 6.9.
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/959722
