Painted beech armchair with caned seat.
Identifier
FPF221
Title
Painted beech armchair with caned seat.
Date
1780-1800
Description
Painted beech rout armchair with a spindle back and caned seat.
Full Description
This painted beech rout armchair has an open chamfered cartouche-shaped back with five tapering and chamfered vertical spindles shaped into the top rail to form gothic arches. The out-swept shaped arms terminate in down-turned scrolls and rest on curved supports rising from the seat rails. The chair has a shaped caned seat with a serpentine front rail and shaped apron. It is raised on square and tapering front legs and flared back legs. They are joined by later turned stretchers at the front and sides; the front stretcher is raised higher than at the sides. There is a later squab cushion.
This chair has its original caned seat and some of the original blue and white painted decoration. Its form was possibly inspired by Hepplewhite’s design for ‘Cabriole Chairs’ published in The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (1794).
Rout chairs were used at dances and banquets where large numbers of inexpensive but decorative chairs were required, often hired for the event. They might also be used in a domestic setting where they might normally be kept in different rooms and brought together for parties (Boram, 2015). Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) described them as: ‘Small painted chairs with rush bottoms, lent out by cabinet makers for hire, as a supply of seats at general entertainments, or feasts; hence their name rout chair’. In c. 1765, Ayliffe & Webb, Chair Makers and Turners of 49 Wardour Street, Soho, announced: ‘Chairs lent for Routs’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
This chair has its original caned seat and some of the original blue and white painted decoration. Its form was possibly inspired by Hepplewhite’s design for ‘Cabriole Chairs’ published in The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (1794).
Rout chairs were used at dances and banquets where large numbers of inexpensive but decorative chairs were required, often hired for the event. They might also be used in a domestic setting where they might normally be kept in different rooms and brought together for parties (Boram, 2015). Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) described them as: ‘Small painted chairs with rush bottoms, lent out by cabinet makers for hire, as a supply of seats at general entertainments, or feasts; hence their name rout chair’. In c. 1765, Ayliffe & Webb, Chair Makers and Turners of 49 Wardour Street, Soho, announced: ‘Chairs lent for Routs’ (cited in Gloag, 1991).
Condition
In good original condition, retains some of its original paint finish.
The caning is original.
Three stretchers are later additions, it may not have had stretchers originally.
The feet are tipped.
The caning is original.
Three stretchers are later additions, it may not have had stretchers originally.
The feet are tipped.
Materials
Beech.
Cane.
Cane.
Physical Dimensions
H. 94
W. 58
D. 58
W. 58
D. 58
Parker Numbers
1235a. 2062.
The arms of this chair inspired the arm shape of a Parker Knoll chair, PK735, produced in 1951.
The arms of this chair inspired the arm shape of a Parker Knoll chair, PK735, produced in 1951.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons on 1st December 1911 from Brackett for £6.0.0.
Notes
G. Hepplewhite, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1794, plate 11.
J. Boram, ‘The Domestic Context for Gillows’ Rush- and Cane-Seated Chairs’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXIX, 2015, pp. 50-52.
T. Sheraton, Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, vol. II, p. 299.
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 572.
J. Boram, ‘The Domestic Context for Gillows’ Rush- and Cane-Seated Chairs’, Regional Furniture, vol. XXIX, 2015, pp. 50-52.
T. Sheraton, Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, vol. II, p. 299.
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, p. 572.
