Upholstered wing armchair fitted as a commode.

FPF324

Upholstered wing armchair fitted as a commode.

1800-1820

Upholstered wing armchair with mahogany legs, fitted as a commode.

This fully upholstered wing armchair has a high rectangular curved back with shaped rectangular wings which meet out-scrolled and down-swept arms. It has a loose seat-cushion, beneath which there is a frame which originally supported a toilet pan, now missing, under a hinged lid. The chair is raised on turned and tapering mahogany front legs with brass castors, and square section, flared mahogany legs at the back. The chair is covered with a modern pale green wool damask with a lighter fringe trimming.

The term ‘commode’ is a modern usage; this chair would have been referred to as a ‘necessary’ chair in the period when it was made. George Hepplewhite included a design for a similar ‘Easy Chair’ engraved in 1787 and published in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1794, which he described as: ‘a Saddle Check, or easy chair; the construction and use of which is apparent: they may be covered with leather, horse-hair; or have a linen case to fit over the canvas stuffing as is most usual and convenient’.

The chair was restored and recovered with a modern wool damask in 1985.
The front legs are possibly replaced.

Mahogany.
Upholstery.

H. 119
W. 79
D. 81

6202

Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons prior to December 1929, probably 13th October 1925.

A. Hepplewhite and Co., The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide; or, Repository of designs for every article of household furniture, 3rd Edition 1794, Plate 15 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive