A japanned armchair with caned seat.
Identifier
FPF317
Title
A japanned armchair with caned seat.
Date
1790-1810
Description
A japanned armchair with red and gold painted decoration and a caned seat.
Full Description
This beech armchair is japanned, with a black ground decorated with gold and red paint. The crest rail has a raised central section and corners shaped and painted as flowers or knots of ribbon (the detail is now worn off); across the top of the rail there is a run of carved and painted twisted cord and drapery swags below. A pierced splat with six vertical bars carved and painted with beads rises from a stepped base and lower rail, with painted decoration, now obscured. The frame, arms, seat rail and legs are painted with gold lining, flowers, leaves and musical trophies. The arms are down-swept ending in scrolls, meeting forward-swept and turned arm supports which rise from the front legs. The caned seat is rectangular and tapers towards the back of the chair. The front legs are ring-turned and turned with ‘toupie’ feet (toupie is French for a spinning top). The back legs are square section, tapering and flared.
This armchair includes motifs from antiquity: twisted cord, drapery swags and flared legs, all typical of the later neo-classical style which was especially influenced by the designer/interior decorator Thomas Hope (1769-1831). His residence in Duchess Street, London, refurbished in the Egyptian-revival style, formed the basis for his book Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807). As in this example, some of the furniture of the period was japanned (painted black) to imitate ebony and ornamented with gold painted lining and motifs. Caned chairs were prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with Thomas Sheraton issuing instructions on their maintenance in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) (Gloag, 1991).
Almost always, caned chairs would have been supplied with a squab cushion, generally made to fit closely between the uprights and held in place with ties around the back legs; this accounts for the back rail being set a little way above the seat. Few original squab cushions survive.
This armchair includes motifs from antiquity: twisted cord, drapery swags and flared legs, all typical of the later neo-classical style which was especially influenced by the designer/interior decorator Thomas Hope (1769-1831). His residence in Duchess Street, London, refurbished in the Egyptian-revival style, formed the basis for his book Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807). As in this example, some of the furniture of the period was japanned (painted black) to imitate ebony and ornamented with gold painted lining and motifs. Caned chairs were prevalent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with Thomas Sheraton issuing instructions on their maintenance in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803) (Gloag, 1991).
Almost always, caned chairs would have been supplied with a squab cushion, generally made to fit closely between the uprights and held in place with ties around the back legs; this accounts for the back rail being set a little way above the seat. Few original squab cushions survive.
Condition
The chair is in good original condition, with much of the original paintwork intact, but worn.
The seat rails have been repaired with wooden slips and the caning is replaced.
The seat rails have been repaired with wooden slips and the caning is replaced.
Materials
Beech.
Cane.
Cane.
Physical Dimensions
H. 84
W. 55
D. 54
W. 55
D. 54
Parker Numbers
OM 38
Provenance
Not recorded.
Notes
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, pp. 549, 578-580.
