Mahogany library armchair.
Identifier
FPF297
Title
Mahogany library armchair.
Date
1795-1810
Description
Mahogany library armchair with wide flat arm rests.
Full Description
This mahogany library armchair frame has a padded concave tablet back with rounded ends, stuffed with horsehair and covered in close-nailed leather, probably Moroccan, i.e. goatskin. The arms are joined to the posts just below the tablet and curve down to form wide flat armrests which would originally have been padded. There are baluster-turned arm supports joined to the beech seat rail, which is circular, and now missing its stuff-over upholstery. The front legs are turned and tapering, with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top), and the back legs are square-section and flared. The chair possibly had a swivel underarm fixture for either a candle or book rest, as indicated by a filled peg hole in the underside of the right arm.
Library chairs are rare survivors today, since they must always have been somewhat unusual and would have had a limited market. There is an example in the Victoria & Albert Museum of a type of reading chair where the sitter faces what would normally be the back of the chair, made c. 1730 and believed to have been owned by the poet John Gay (V&A: W.47:1-1948). Thomas Sheraton illustrates such a chair in The Cabinet Directory (1803), plate 5, and states that the chair was intended: ‘to make the exercise [of reading] easy, and for the convenience of taking down a note or quotation from any subject’.
This chair (FPF297) is a more conventional form of armchair, but the enlarged and padded arms would have given more support when holding a book or newspaper. For an example of a writing chair in the Frederick Parker Collection, see FPF149.
Library chairs are rare survivors today, since they must always have been somewhat unusual and would have had a limited market. There is an example in the Victoria & Albert Museum of a type of reading chair where the sitter faces what would normally be the back of the chair, made c. 1730 and believed to have been owned by the poet John Gay (V&A: W.47:1-1948). Thomas Sheraton illustrates such a chair in The Cabinet Directory (1803), plate 5, and states that the chair was intended: ‘to make the exercise [of reading] easy, and for the convenience of taking down a note or quotation from any subject’.
This chair (FPF297) is a more conventional form of armchair, but the enlarged and padded arms would have given more support when holding a book or newspaper. For an example of a writing chair in the Frederick Parker Collection, see FPF149.
Condition
Left front leg has been replaced at the top.
Repair to the crest rail.
Tack holes on the arms indicate position of upholstery, now missing.
The seat upholstery would have been stuff-over as indicated by tack holes.
Repair to the crest rail.
Tack holes on the arms indicate position of upholstery, now missing.
The seat upholstery would have been stuff-over as indicated by tack holes.
Materials
Mahogany.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 91
W. 66
D. 61
W. 66
D. 61
Parker Numbers
Plastic label ‘PATTERN OM 1357’.
Provenance
In stock prior to 1911, purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons from Gill & Reigate for £2.
Notes
For the library reading chair at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, see:
Reading Chair | V&A Explore The Collections
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O55040/reading-chair/
R. Edwards, Sheraton Furniture Designs, London, 1945, pp. 44-45.
Noted in Parker record: Returned to HW for Parkertex in April 1986.
Reading Chair | V&A Explore The Collections
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O55040/reading-chair/
R. Edwards, Sheraton Furniture Designs, London, 1945, pp. 44-45.
Noted in Parker record: Returned to HW for Parkertex in April 1986.
