Walnut side chair with drop-in seat.
Identifier
FPF080
Title
Walnut side chair with drop-in seat.
Date
1730-1740
Description
Walnut side chair with a solid baluster splat and upholstered drop-in seat.
Full Description
This walnut side chair has a concave crest rail with deeply carved scrolls at the rounded ends, and tapering and waisted back posts which are cross-grain veneered. A solid inverted baluster splat, almost violin-shaped, joins an upholstered drop-in ‘compass’ (rounded) seat on a walnut-veneered seat-rail with a shaped front apron. The chair has cabriole front legs with carved ‘C’ scroll ears and pad feet. The back legs are turned with shaped ears and flared with pad feet. The legs are joined by a turned ‘H’-form stretcher with square blocks; the middle stretcher is wave-shaped and there is a higher turned back stretcher. The drop-in seat is covered with 20th century reproduction Genoa figured velvet.
This type of chair was often described as a ‘banister’ or ‘pedestal’ back chair in contemporary accounts, referring to the baluster- or vase-shaped profile of its central splat. In June 1725, inventories for Cannons, Middlesex, and Chandos House, London, respectively the country and London seats of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, show that both houses had several sets of chairs with ‘banister backs’(Bowett, 2009).
This chair has a similar waved cross-stretcher to that found on a japanned and beechwood chair illustrated in Bowett, 2009, p.158, Plate 4:29, and on a chair in the Frederick Parker Collection, FPF045, also illustrated in Bowett, 2009, p. 163, Plate 4:37. The use of stretchers in combination with cabriole legs was gradually phased out on the better quality chairs during the 1720s and 1730s.
This type of chair was often described as a ‘banister’ or ‘pedestal’ back chair in contemporary accounts, referring to the baluster- or vase-shaped profile of its central splat. In June 1725, inventories for Cannons, Middlesex, and Chandos House, London, respectively the country and London seats of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, show that both houses had several sets of chairs with ‘banister backs’(Bowett, 2009).
This chair has a similar waved cross-stretcher to that found on a japanned and beechwood chair illustrated in Bowett, 2009, p.158, Plate 4:29, and on a chair in the Frederick Parker Collection, FPF045, also illustrated in Bowett, 2009, p. 163, Plate 4:37. The use of stretchers in combination with cabriole legs was gradually phased out on the better quality chairs during the 1720s and 1730s.
Condition
Original finish stripped; now stained and varnished, obscuring the colour and grain.
Repairs to right hand back upright, shoe and right hand seat rail.
Repairs to right hand back upright, shoe and right hand seat rail.
Materials
Walnut.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 99
W. 53
D. 53
W. 53
D. 53
Parker Numbers
OM 8, pattern no. 281. See Frederick Parker Achive, Box 55, Ms. FPA050, page 137 and 159.
Provenance
In stock with Frederick Parker & Sons prior to 1911 when it was valued at £1.0.0.
Notes
Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Antique Collectors' Club, 2009, pp. 158, 161, 163, 177, Plates 4:29, 4:37-4:38.
