Revolving upholstered tub chair.
Identifier
FPF368
Title
Revolving upholstered tub chair.
Date
1830-1850
Description
Mahogany revolving upholstered tub chair.
Full Description
This mahogany tub armchair has an arched upholstered back with down-swept padded sides and mahogany out-scrolled arms carved with foliate scrolls, enclosing a circular padded seat. The top part of the chair would originally have been able to revolve but in restoration the seat is now fixed to the deep moulded circular mahogany seat rail. The chair is raised on ring-turned legs which originally were fitted with castors, now missing. The chair is upholstered in a 20th century tan leather, with large domed brass nails around the edge of the back and arms.
This tub chair derives from French 18th century bergère chairs, for example, a bergère ‘de forme gondole’ (ie. in the form of a gondola), illustrated in Kjellberg, 2002. Designs for tub chairs appear in Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), plate 8. They remained popular throughout the 19th century, see Thomas King’s The Cabinet Maker’s Sketch Book (1835) (Joy, 1994), and on 13 June 1874, The Furniture Gazette noted that Samuel Jones at 114 Curtain Road planned to display ‘a superior stock of ebonized and gold, and other fancy chairs, office chairs & stools, folding chairs, revolving and library chairs’ (BIFMO).
This tub chair derives from French 18th century bergère chairs, for example, a bergère ‘de forme gondole’ (ie. in the form of a gondola), illustrated in Kjellberg, 2002. Designs for tub chairs appear in Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), plate 8. They remained popular throughout the 19th century, see Thomas King’s The Cabinet Maker’s Sketch Book (1835) (Joy, 1994), and on 13 June 1874, The Furniture Gazette noted that Samuel Jones at 114 Curtain Road planned to display ‘a superior stock of ebonized and gold, and other fancy chairs, office chairs & stools, folding chairs, revolving and library chairs’ (BIFMO).
Condition
Framing under seat replaced, and seat now fixed to the seat rail below.
Upholstery replaced.
Originally with castors.
Upholstery replaced.
Originally with castors.
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 89
W. 61
D. 66
W. 61
D. 66
Parker Numbers
Plastic label under seat rail: ‘OM 1079’.
Provenance
Not recorded.
Notes
P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Francais de XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, 2002, p. 105, B.
Ed. E. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, reprinted 1994, p. 148.
Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, plate 8.
Jones, John (1811–1874) | BIFMO
Ed. E. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, reprinted 1994, p. 148.
Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, plate 8.
Jones, John (1811–1874) | BIFMO
