Mahogany ‘close’ armchair, or commode.
Identifier
FPF160
Title
Mahogany ‘close’ armchair, or commode.
Date
1765-1775
Description
Mahogany ‘close’ armchair, or commode, with pierced splat and upholstered drop-in seat.
Full Description
A ‘close’ chair is one fitted with a pewter or ceramic toilet pot in the seat. The term commode was used from the 19th century onwards and derives from bedside cupboards for pots disguised as chests of drawers - the early term for a chest of drawers being a commode. The term is now in common use as a chair with a pot.
This mahogany armchair has a serpentine crest rail and flared tapering back posts. A pierced interlaced vase-shaped splat fits into a shoe at the rear of the tapering upholstered drop-in seat, which has a deep apron shaped with cusps at the front and sides to conceal the pot. Under the drop-in seat there is a pine board, cut with a hole for the pot (now missing). The chair has out-swept arms with serpentine supports that join deep seat rails, and it is supported on chamfered square-section legs, the back legs slightly flared. The drop-in seat frame is a replacement covered in a modern leatherette fabric.
The back splat is possibly derived from Plate XVI ‘Backs of Chairs’ in the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762. The design was evidently still fashionable in the 1770s, as seen in Thomas Malton’s drawing (White, 1990).
This mahogany armchair has a serpentine crest rail and flared tapering back posts. A pierced interlaced vase-shaped splat fits into a shoe at the rear of the tapering upholstered drop-in seat, which has a deep apron shaped with cusps at the front and sides to conceal the pot. Under the drop-in seat there is a pine board, cut with a hole for the pot (now missing). The chair has out-swept arms with serpentine supports that join deep seat rails, and it is supported on chamfered square-section legs, the back legs slightly flared. The drop-in seat frame is a replacement covered in a modern leatherette fabric.
The back splat is possibly derived from Plate XVI ‘Backs of Chairs’ in the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762. The design was evidently still fashionable in the 1770s, as seen in Thomas Malton’s drawing (White, 1990).
Condition
The right back post has been replaced.
There are knife marks on the left side of the seat rail.
There are knife marks on the left side of the seat rail.
Materials
Mahogany.
Pine.
Upholstery.
Pine.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 99
W. 66
D. 58
W. 66
D. 58
Parker Numbers
4045/6
OM 6048. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, FPA050. Page 136.
OM 6048. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, FPA050. Page 136.
Provenance
In stock with Frederick Parker & Sons on 12th May 1925 for £5.0.0.
Notes
Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, Third Edition, 1762, Plate XVI. Also in ed. E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 66, Plate XVI.
See also in ed. E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990, p. 85, Thomas Malton, Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775, Plate XXXIII, Fig. 130.
Two further examples of close chairs, c. 1770, are at Polesden Lacy, Surrey ; see:
Open armchair 1245960| National Trust collections
Open armchair 1245961| National Trust collections
See also in ed. E. White, Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1990, p. 85, Thomas Malton, Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775, Plate XXXIII, Fig. 130.
Two further examples of close chairs, c. 1770, are at Polesden Lacy, Surrey ; see:
Open armchair 1245960| National Trust collections
Open armchair 1245961| National Trust collections
