Mahogany side chair with upholstered oval seat and spoon-shaped back.
Identifier
FPF092
Title
Mahogany side chair with upholstered oval seat and spoon-shaped back.
Date
1730-1740.
Description
Mahogany side chair with cabriole legs, carved and gilt, with upholstered oval seat and spoon-shaped back.
Full Description
This mahogany chair has a spoon-shaped, waisted and fully upholstered back, with a semi-circular scoop in the top centre. The stuff-over compass seat rests on four cabriole legs decorated with carving, the front pair with leaves on the knees and just above the pad feet, and the back pair with leaves along the upper forward edge. This carving has traces of gilded decoration. The upholstery cover is 20th-century velvet with braided trimming.
It is suggested that this is one of a set of perhaps six Scottish chairs dated c.1735-40, attributed to Edinburgh makers Alexander Peter and John Schaw and reputed to have belonged to Catherine Gordon of Gight (Wood, 2008, p.419). Two of the chairs were recorded by the furniture historian R.W. Symonds but their current location is unknown. A third is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the construction and upholstery have been studied in detail (see Wood, p.420). All three chairs are shown with needlework covers depicting scenes from Ovid, suggesting the Frederick Parker chair might originally have had similar covers.
The top of the back of this chair (and of the others in the set described above) has a semi-circular scoop which might have held a circular decorative or armorial motif. This is a feature of other chairs discussed by Wood (p.407) and Beard (1997).
If the assumptions above are correct this would have been a very expensive chair, made for an aristocratic client by leading Edinburgh craftsmen, Alexander Peter, ‘wright’, or joiner, and John Schaw, upholsterer. It would have originally been covered with needlework of exceptional quality and had an armorial roundel in the crest. It would possibly have graced the grand rooms of a Scottish baronial house.
It is suggested that this is one of a set of perhaps six Scottish chairs dated c.1735-40, attributed to Edinburgh makers Alexander Peter and John Schaw and reputed to have belonged to Catherine Gordon of Gight (Wood, 2008, p.419). Two of the chairs were recorded by the furniture historian R.W. Symonds but their current location is unknown. A third is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the construction and upholstery have been studied in detail (see Wood, p.420). All three chairs are shown with needlework covers depicting scenes from Ovid, suggesting the Frederick Parker chair might originally have had similar covers.
The top of the back of this chair (and of the others in the set described above) has a semi-circular scoop which might have held a circular decorative or armorial motif. This is a feature of other chairs discussed by Wood (p.407) and Beard (1997).
If the assumptions above are correct this would have been a very expensive chair, made for an aristocratic client by leading Edinburgh craftsmen, Alexander Peter, ‘wright’, or joiner, and John Schaw, upholsterer. It would have originally been covered with needlework of exceptional quality and had an armorial roundel in the crest. It would possibly have graced the grand rooms of a Scottish baronial house.
Condition
There are losses to both front feet.
The chair was re-covered in velvet with braid trimming in the 20th century. It is recorded that when purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons it was covered in Morocco leather (goat skin).
The chair was re-covered in velvet with braid trimming in the 20th century. It is recorded that when purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons it was covered in Morocco leather (goat skin).
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 99
W. 61
D. 66
W. 61
D. 66
Parker Numbers
950. 2059.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons pre-1911 from Millar (probably Cecil Millar) for £13.13.0
Notes
Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Yale University Press, Vol. I, 2008, p.419. This chair is considered alongside comparable chairs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery collection.
Beard, Geoffrey, Upholsterers and Interior Furnishing in England 1530-1840, Yale University Press, 1997, p184.
A similar chair is illustrated in Edwards, Ralph, Dictionary of English Furniture, Country Life, 1954, Vol. I, p. 261.
Beard, Geoffrey, Upholsterers and Interior Furnishing in England 1530-1840, Yale University Press, 1997, p184.
A similar chair is illustrated in Edwards, Ralph, Dictionary of English Furniture, Country Life, 1954, Vol. I, p. 261.
