Beech side chair with walnut splat and caned seat and back.
Identifier
FPF046
Title
Beech side chair with walnut splat and caned seat and back.
Date
1720-1730
Description
Beech side chair with walnut splat, caned seat and back and cabriole legs.
Full Description
This beech chair has a walnut splat originally with an inlaid marquetry cartouche which is now missing. The chair has an ‘India’ or ‘bended’ back, with moulded posts and a central rectangular splat surmounted by a boldly carved and pierced crest with scrolls and a centre shell. There is a lower rail at the base of the splat and two panels of fine canework which appear to be original. The tapered seat frame is also caned and there is a profiled apron on the bottom edge of the front rail. The front legs are rounded cabrioles with pad feet, while the raked back legs are continuous with the posts, turned and with squared blocks and flared heels. There is an H-form stretcher with turned side rails and a flat wave-form cross stretcher, asymmetrically placed, and a higher turned back rail. The beech parts have been stained to resemble walnut.
The chair is unusual in being essentially a beech chair with a walnut splat. Beech was a less expensive wood, but this was a complex chair to make, with the bended back, carved crest and cabriole legs. This level of work would normally be associated with a walnut chair. The marquetry cartouche in the splat which is now missing would have been a further expense. For an example of the type of marquetry this might have been, see Bowett, 2009, p.161, Plate 4:33. Another chair illustrated by Bowett (ibid, p172, Plate 4:56) has a similarly bold shell-carved and scrolled crest.
The ‘bended’ back was sometimes referred to as an ‘India’ back in contemporary accounts, reflecting the Chinese influence on English furniture, and is also seen in other chairs in the Frederick Parker Collection; see FPF 045, 050 and 058. The earliest documented set of chairs with this form of back were recorded at Canons Ashby in 1717 (Bowett, ibid, p.157).
The chair is unusual in being essentially a beech chair with a walnut splat. Beech was a less expensive wood, but this was a complex chair to make, with the bended back, carved crest and cabriole legs. This level of work would normally be associated with a walnut chair. The marquetry cartouche in the splat which is now missing would have been a further expense. For an example of the type of marquetry this might have been, see Bowett, 2009, p.161, Plate 4:33. Another chair illustrated by Bowett (ibid, p172, Plate 4:56) has a similarly bold shell-carved and scrolled crest.
The ‘bended’ back was sometimes referred to as an ‘India’ back in contemporary accounts, reflecting the Chinese influence on English furniture, and is also seen in other chairs in the Frederick Parker Collection; see FPF 045, 050 and 058. The earliest documented set of chairs with this form of back were recorded at Canons Ashby in 1717 (Bowett, ibid, p.157).
Condition
The front and side seat rails are replaced.
The caning in the seat is replaced.
The left back leg is re-tipped.
The caning in the seat is replaced.
The left back leg is re-tipped.
Materials
Beech.
Walnut.
Cane.
Walnut.
Cane.
Physical Dimensions
H. 118
W. 52
D. 51
W. 52
D. 51
Parker Numbers
3545
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons prior to 1914, from Irving for £10.0.0
Notes
Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture,1715-1740, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2009, pp.156-161, Plate 4:33 and p.172, Plate 4:56.
