Carved walnut and walnut-veneered side chair.
Identifier
FPF073
Title
Carved walnut and walnut-veneered side chair.
Date
1730-1740
Description
A carved walnut and walnut-veneered side chair with solid splat and cabriole legs.
Full Description
This walnut chair has figured veneers on the faces of the back posts, crest, cross rail and splat and on the seat rails. The waisted back posts are joined by a shaped crest rail, above a shaped intermediary cross-rail and an elaborately shaped solid splat fitted into a raised ‘shoe’ on the rear seat rail. The ‘compass’ (rounded) seat, echoing the shape of the back, is moulded along the top edges to retain the drop-in seat, which is replaced and upholstered in 20th century gold velour. The chair is raised on four cabriole legs terminating in pad feet; the front legs are walnut with ‘C’ scrolls on the ears at the top of the legs and foliate carving on the knees and feet, while the back legs are stained beech with plain scroll ears on the knees.
This type of chair was often called a banister-back chair. It has a compass back and seat and is broader than the tall and narrow chairs of the 1720s. The back is both ‘bended’ in the vertical plane and dished in the horizontal plane. The complexity of its form and construction entailed ‘a high degree of workshop organisation as well as individual competence’ (Bowett, 2009).
Chairs of this form are sometimes associated to the Clerkenwell cabinet- and chair-maker, Giles Grendey (1693-1780); examples of Grendey’s chairs include a set of six walnut chairs, c. 1730, two bearing the remnants of his trade label, now in the Carnegie Museum of Art (Gilbert, 1996); and a set of red-japanned (lacquered) and gilt chairs, c. 1735-40, from about eighty various pieces that Grendey supplied to the Duke of Infantado for his castle of Lazcano in Spain - an example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession Number: 37.115.
However, chairs like this were made by a number of other makers; for example, a pair with similar profile back but more extravagantly carved is at Glin Castle, Co. Limerick, and has been identified as by an Irish maker (Knight of Glin, 2007); and a chair with a very similar back and square seat was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 20th January 1990, lot 116.
This type of chair was often called a banister-back chair. It has a compass back and seat and is broader than the tall and narrow chairs of the 1720s. The back is both ‘bended’ in the vertical plane and dished in the horizontal plane. The complexity of its form and construction entailed ‘a high degree of workshop organisation as well as individual competence’ (Bowett, 2009).
Chairs of this form are sometimes associated to the Clerkenwell cabinet- and chair-maker, Giles Grendey (1693-1780); examples of Grendey’s chairs include a set of six walnut chairs, c. 1730, two bearing the remnants of his trade label, now in the Carnegie Museum of Art (Gilbert, 1996); and a set of red-japanned (lacquered) and gilt chairs, c. 1735-40, from about eighty various pieces that Grendey supplied to the Duke of Infantado for his castle of Lazcano in Spain - an example is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession Number: 37.115.
However, chairs like this were made by a number of other makers; for example, a pair with similar profile back but more extravagantly carved is at Glin Castle, Co. Limerick, and has been identified as by an Irish maker (Knight of Glin, 2007); and a chair with a very similar back and square seat was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 20th January 1990, lot 116.
Condition
The ‘shoe’ may be a replacement; there are screw holes on the top and a piece missing from the right side.
There is a small piece of veneer missing on the left side of the seat-rail.
The drop-in seat frame is replaced.
The front legs could be early-20th century replacements; the overcleaned surface of the chair makes a judgement very difficult.
There is a small piece of veneer missing on the left side of the seat-rail.
The drop-in seat frame is replaced.
The front legs could be early-20th century replacements; the overcleaned surface of the chair makes a judgement very difficult.
Materials
Walnut.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Beech.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 102
W. 58
D. 61
W. 58
D. 61
Parker Numbers
Plastic label on seat rail, PATTERN OM 3697. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, Ms. FPA050, page 146.
Provenance
In stock prior to 1915; purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons for £15.0.0 from Cecil Millar of 30 Newman Street, W.1.
Notes
Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Antique Collectors' Club, 2009, pp. 177-179. See Plates 4:66 and 4:67 for comparable chairs.
C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Furniture History Society and Maney, 1996, p. 242, plate 434.
Giles Grendey | Side chair | British, Clerkenwell, London | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Knight of Glin, J. Peill, Irish Furniture, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 108-109, fig. 139.
C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Furniture History Society and Maney, 1996, p. 242, plate 434.
Giles Grendey | Side chair | British, Clerkenwell, London | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Knight of Glin, J. Peill, Irish Furniture, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 108-109, fig. 139.
