Beech side chair with caned seat and sabre legs.
Identifier
FPF339
Title
Beech side chair with caned seat and sabre legs.
Date
1810-1820
Description
Beech side chair with caned seat and sabre legs, with simulated rosewood finish.
Full Description
This beech side chair has a curved and concave ring-turned crest rail with rope-twist carving in the middle. The back posts are serpentine and are joined by two horizontal channel moulded rails with brass bosses at each end. In the centre of the rails, there is a brass cabochon flanked by carved foliate fronds. The chair has a caned seat, which appears original, and a loose squab covered in a modern striped linen. The chair is raised on sabre legs; there are brass bosses at the tops of the front legs and on either side of the back posts. The seat rails have horizontal slots, presumably for tapes securing the squab.
The chair is stained and grained to simulate rosewood, an expensive tropical wood imported from India; using a cheaper wood like beech reduced the cost of the chair considerably and the stained and grained finish was often very convincing. In 1823, The New Practical Builder described graining as ‘the imitating, by means of painting, various kinds of rare woods; as satin-wood, rose-wood, king-wood, mahogany, &c., and likewise various species of marble’ (Gloag, 1991).
The distinctive serpentine profile of the chair back is found in designs by George Smith in A collection of designs for household furniture and interior decoration (1808). This chair has evolved from a ‘Trafalgar’ or ‘Egyptian’ chair characterised by its sweeping profile and rounded ‘knees’ at the seat rail. ‘Trafalgar’ or ‘Egyptian’ chairs reflected the popularity for Admiral Nelson and his sea victories in the Napoleonic Wars, which are further alluded to by decorative motifs such as the rope moulding on the crest rail and back posts, the brass bosses and the cabochon, which represents cannon balls or shot.
The curved legs, now generally termed ‘sabre’ or ‘scimitar’ and at the time ‘Grecian’, are copied from those found on Greek Klismos chairs of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The form was first published in Percier & Fontaine’s Recueil de Decorations Interferes comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l’ameublement (1801).
The chair is stained and grained to simulate rosewood, an expensive tropical wood imported from India; using a cheaper wood like beech reduced the cost of the chair considerably and the stained and grained finish was often very convincing. In 1823, The New Practical Builder described graining as ‘the imitating, by means of painting, various kinds of rare woods; as satin-wood, rose-wood, king-wood, mahogany, &c., and likewise various species of marble’ (Gloag, 1991).
The distinctive serpentine profile of the chair back is found in designs by George Smith in A collection of designs for household furniture and interior decoration (1808). This chair has evolved from a ‘Trafalgar’ or ‘Egyptian’ chair characterised by its sweeping profile and rounded ‘knees’ at the seat rail. ‘Trafalgar’ or ‘Egyptian’ chairs reflected the popularity for Admiral Nelson and his sea victories in the Napoleonic Wars, which are further alluded to by decorative motifs such as the rope moulding on the crest rail and back posts, the brass bosses and the cabochon, which represents cannon balls or shot.
The curved legs, now generally termed ‘sabre’ or ‘scimitar’ and at the time ‘Grecian’, are copied from those found on Greek Klismos chairs of the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The form was first published in Percier & Fontaine’s Recueil de Decorations Interferes comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l’ameublement (1801).
Condition
The chair is in good original condition.
The crest rail is loose.
The front left leg is loose, putting the cane at risk of breaking.
The squab cushion is 20th century.
The crest rail is loose.
The front left leg is loose, putting the cane at risk of breaking.
The squab cushion is 20th century.
Materials
Beech.
Cane.
Cane.
Physical Dimensions
H. 84
W. 46
D. 51
W. 46
D. 51
Parker Numbers
1923
Provenance
In the Collection prior to 1993.
Notes
J. Gloag, A Complete Dictionary of Furniture, revised and expanded by C. Edwards, Woodstock, 1991, pp. 177-178, 368-369.
George Smith, A collection of designs for household furniture and interior decoration, London, 1808.
Percier & Fontaine, Recueil de Decorations Interieures comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l’ameublement, Paris, 1801.
A similar chair by John Gee, c. 1810-15, is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, London, rev. ed. 1965, p. 53, fig. 91.
George Smith, A collection of designs for household furniture and interior decoration, London, 1808.
Percier & Fontaine, Recueil de Decorations Interieures comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l’ameublement, Paris, 1801.
A similar chair by John Gee, c. 1810-15, is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, London, rev. ed. 1965, p. 53, fig. 91.
