Mahogany chamber horse.
Identifier
FPF399
Title
Mahogany chamber horse.
Date
1790-1810
Description
A chamber horse for indoor exercise, comprising a leather-covered sprung seat within a mahogany frame.
Full Description
This is a rare survival of an 18th or early 19th century exercise machine used indoors to simulate the action of riding a horse. The ‘rider’ would pull forwards the retractable footrest, mount the leathered cushion, grip the sidebars and push him or herself up and down on the sprung seat. The idea seems to have been introduced during the first half of the 18th century. In a newspaper advertisement of 1740, Henry Marsh of Clare-Market, London described himself as the inventor. Gillows appear to have been making them before 1790 since they refer to one in a letter of that year saying that it was ‘let out for a short time’ and in January the same year they supplied a chamber horse to a client, Mrs Lindow (Stuart, 2008).
Thomas Sheraton was the first to publish a design, in 1793, which included a cross-section through the seat to show how it worked. This chamber horse in the Frederick Parker Collection is very similar to the Sheraton design and its reconstruction to working order in 1985 was based on it. Sheraton wrote that the inside ‘consists of five wainscot boards, clamped at the ends; to which are fixed strong wire twisted round a block in regular gradation, so that when the wire is compressed by the weight of those who exercise, each turn of it may clear itself and fall within each other. The top board is stuffed with hair as a chair seat, and the leather is fixed to each board with brass nails, tacked all round’. This would appear to be the first published design for coiled iron springs which were to become almost universally used in upholstery and mattresses from the 1840s right up to the present. Before this period the development of springing had been concentrated on carriages and stage coaches which had to negotiate rough country roads and cobbled streets. In the present case the springs are used for their mechanical action rather than for comfort, although there are references to sprung seat furniture in Germany and France as early as 1765, apparently used with ease of sitting in mind, but not necessarily referring to coiled springs.
Thomas Sheraton was the first to publish a design, in 1793, which included a cross-section through the seat to show how it worked. This chamber horse in the Frederick Parker Collection is very similar to the Sheraton design and its reconstruction to working order in 1985 was based on it. Sheraton wrote that the inside ‘consists of five wainscot boards, clamped at the ends; to which are fixed strong wire twisted round a block in regular gradation, so that when the wire is compressed by the weight of those who exercise, each turn of it may clear itself and fall within each other. The top board is stuffed with hair as a chair seat, and the leather is fixed to each board with brass nails, tacked all round’. This would appear to be the first published design for coiled iron springs which were to become almost universally used in upholstery and mattresses from the 1840s right up to the present. Before this period the development of springing had been concentrated on carriages and stage coaches which had to negotiate rough country roads and cobbled streets. In the present case the springs are used for their mechanical action rather than for comfort, although there are references to sprung seat furniture in Germany and France as early as 1765, apparently used with ease of sitting in mind, but not necessarily referring to coiled springs.
Condition
Fully restored to working order in 1985.
Upholstery, seat boards and footrest replaced.
Upholstery, seat boards and footrest replaced.
Materials
Mahogany.
Oak.
Steel springs.
Upholstery.
Oak.
Steel springs.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 89
W. 74
D. 56
W. 74
D. 56
Parker Numbers
OM 1769.
Provenance
The frame was purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons, August 1912, for 5 shillings. The working parts were missing.
Notes
Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, Antiques Collectors’ Club, 2008, Vol. II, p.93.
Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book, 1793, Appendix, plate XXII.
A similar chamber horse is illustrated in Geoffrey Wills, English Furniture 1760-1900, Guinness, 1979, p. 151.
Thomas Sheraton, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book, 1793, Appendix, plate XXII.
A similar chamber horse is illustrated in Geoffrey Wills, English Furniture 1760-1900, Guinness, 1979, p. 151.
