Painted beech upholstered open armchair.
Identifier
FPF202
Title
Painted beech upholstered open armchair.
Date
1770-1780
Description
Painted beech upholstered open armchair with oval back.
Full Description
This painted open armchair has an oval, moulded and upholstered back and down-swept arms with upholstered pads. The back is continuous with the back leg. The seat rail is fluted and the stuff-over seat is shaped and bow-fronted. The chair is raised on square-section panelled legs at the front with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top). There are carved paterae within square panels where the legs meet the seat-rail. The back legs are raked, also with ‘toupie’ feet. The flowered damask cover is modern.
This chair is typical of the neo-classical style fashionable from the early 1770s. It was a form adopted by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) and his contemporaries including John Linnell (1729-96), whose designs for related models are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (E.82-1929; E.99-1929). Sets of chairs after this pattern with square-section legs are at Harewood House, Yorkshire, and in the collection of the Duke of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, Argyll, Scotland (Hayward, Kirkham, 1980).
It is interesting to note that Linnell’s models alternated between the arms joining the top of the legs, as in this example, or the seat rail, whereas the latter form was characteristic of Chippendale’s chairs. Painted furniture was popular in this period, and considered particularly appropriate for drawing rooms, bedchambers and dressing rooms.
This chair is typical of the neo-classical style fashionable from the early 1770s. It was a form adopted by Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) and his contemporaries including John Linnell (1729-96), whose designs for related models are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (E.82-1929; E.99-1929). Sets of chairs after this pattern with square-section legs are at Harewood House, Yorkshire, and in the collection of the Duke of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, Argyll, Scotland (Hayward, Kirkham, 1980).
It is interesting to note that Linnell’s models alternated between the arms joining the top of the legs, as in this example, or the seat rail, whereas the latter form was characteristic of Chippendale’s chairs. Painted furniture was popular in this period, and considered particularly appropriate for drawing rooms, bedchambers and dressing rooms.
Condition
The gilding and paint finish appear to be original.
The upholstery is replaced.
The upholstery is replaced.
Materials
Beech.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 93
W. 60
D. 49
W. 60
D. 49
Parker Numbers
4476. 5188.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons pre 1911 from Cliffords, Bond Street, for £10.0.0.
Notes
H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell: Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers, London, 1980, vol. II, pp. 46-45, figs. 87-89.
This chair is on loan to No 1 Royal Crescent, Bath.
This chair is on loan to No 1 Royal Crescent, Bath.
