Mahogany side chair with tablet back and upholstered seat.
Identifier
FPF278
Title
Mahogany side chair with tablet back and upholstered seat.
Date
1790-1810
Description
Mahogany side chair with a pierced tablet back and upholstered seat.
Full Description
This mahogany side chair has a concave back with a tablet rail comprising a moulded frame and a central pierced panel of interlaced ovals flanked by solid panels carved with bellflower pendants. Below there is a pierced and fluted diagonal lattice splat with carved florets and rounded arches carved with foliage, with a moulded rail below. Tapering and moulded back posts are continuous with square-section and flared back legs. A deep stuff-over ‘compass’ (round) seat is raised on tapering, turned and reeded front legs with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top). The chair is covered with a modern rose damask.
The pattern for this chair is possibly inspired by a design in Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), plate 3. Sheraton noted that ‘Chair-making is a branch generally confined to itself; as those who professedly work at it, seldom engage to make cabinet furniture. In the country manufactories [sic] it is otherwise; yet even these pay some regard to keeping their workmen constantly at the chair, or to the cabinet work. The two branches seem evidently to require different talents in work-men, in order to become proficients [sic]’ (Fastnedge, 1965).
Several features of this chair were fashionable around the period 1790 to 1800, when chair backs became lower and crest rails, often in tablet-form, became deeper and more substantial. Diagonal lattice splats were popular, as were turned front legs and ‘Grecian’ sabre back legs. The developments in chairmaking are discussed by Fastnedge, who includes an illustration of a similar chair (ibid).
The pattern for this chair is possibly inspired by a design in Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), plate 3. Sheraton noted that ‘Chair-making is a branch generally confined to itself; as those who professedly work at it, seldom engage to make cabinet furniture. In the country manufactories [sic] it is otherwise; yet even these pay some regard to keeping their workmen constantly at the chair, or to the cabinet work. The two branches seem evidently to require different talents in work-men, in order to become proficients [sic]’ (Fastnedge, 1965).
Several features of this chair were fashionable around the period 1790 to 1800, when chair backs became lower and crest rails, often in tablet-form, became deeper and more substantial. Diagonal lattice splats were popular, as were turned front legs and ‘Grecian’ sabre back legs. The developments in chairmaking are discussed by Fastnedge, who includes an illustration of a similar chair (ibid).
Condition
The chair is in good, original condition.
Webbing and base cloth probably 18th century. There are traces of an earlier red damask over green-glazed cotton on the outer edge of the seat rail.
Screw repairs to right hand front leg.
Webbing and base cloth probably 18th century. There are traces of an earlier red damask over green-glazed cotton on the outer edge of the seat rail.
Screw repairs to right hand front leg.
Materials
Mahogany.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 89
W. 51
D. 56
W. 51
D. 56
Parker Numbers
Ink inscription on base cloth (illegible).
OM 6183. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, Ms. FPA050, page 207.
OM 6183. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, Ms. FPA050, page 207.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons on 8 May 1929 from Jade for £14.
Notes
Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, plate 3.
R. Fastnedge, ‘A Manual for Georgian Chair-makers’, Country Life, 10 June 1965, pp. 1440-1445.
R. Fastnedge, ‘A Manual for Georgian Chair-makers’, Country Life, 10 June 1965, pp. 1440-1445.
