Walnut side chair with lyre-shaped splat.
Identifier
FPF094
Title
Walnut side chair with lyre-shaped splat.
Date
1730-1740
Description
Walnut side chair with lyre-shaped pierced splat and drop-in seat.
Full Description
This walnut side chair has a concave crest rail with a central paper scroll and scrolled corners, continuous with the straight and tapered back posts. There is a three-part pierced splat in the form of a lyre, the two outer bars joining the scrolled corners of the crest rail. The tops and bottoms of the piercings are shaped as gothic tracery. The splat is fitted to the seat-rail, with no shoe. The seat rails are plain with a moulded top edge and the drop-in seat, which retains its original frame, is covered with 19th century upholstery and leather cover. The front legs are cabriole with shaped ears and pad feet, while the back legs have turned sections above block heels and are flared. The legs are united by an H-form turned stretcher with squared blocks at the joints and a higher turned back stretcher.
This model is a transitional piece that stylistically lies between the baluster-splat chairs of the 1720s and 30s and pierced fan-back chairs of 1740-50; examples of the fan back can be seen in a set of chairs supplied by John Willis of St. Paul’s Churchyard in 1745 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge (Bowett, 2009). The shaping of the back of this chair resembles a classical Ionic capital; in Thomas Chippendale’s (1718-79) Director (1754, 1755, 1762) the preliminary plates illustrated the classical orders since they were considered the foundation of good design.
A mahogany chair with a closely related splat to the one on this chair is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Chair | Unknown | V&A Explore The Collections). The lyre-shaped splat was to reach its apogee in the late 1760s and early 1770s; an example is the set of six library chairs supplied by Chippendale in 1768 for the Library at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (NT 959722), while a design by Chippendale’s contemporary, John Linnell (1729-96), shows a more elaborate version of the lyre-back (Victoria & Albert Museum, E.80-1929).
This chair is possibly of provincial manufacture, in that the work is relatively plain with no carving and does not use veneers; it combines new and old stylistic features, for example, the lyre-shaped splat would have been quite a new fashion while the use of stretchers with cabriole legs was becoming rather archaic. London makers tended to be in the vanguard with new ideas.
This model is a transitional piece that stylistically lies between the baluster-splat chairs of the 1720s and 30s and pierced fan-back chairs of 1740-50; examples of the fan back can be seen in a set of chairs supplied by John Willis of St. Paul’s Churchyard in 1745 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge (Bowett, 2009). The shaping of the back of this chair resembles a classical Ionic capital; in Thomas Chippendale’s (1718-79) Director (1754, 1755, 1762) the preliminary plates illustrated the classical orders since they were considered the foundation of good design.
A mahogany chair with a closely related splat to the one on this chair is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Chair | Unknown | V&A Explore The Collections). The lyre-shaped splat was to reach its apogee in the late 1760s and early 1770s; an example is the set of six library chairs supplied by Chippendale in 1768 for the Library at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire (NT 959722), while a design by Chippendale’s contemporary, John Linnell (1729-96), shows a more elaborate version of the lyre-back (Victoria & Albert Museum, E.80-1929).
This chair is possibly of provincial manufacture, in that the work is relatively plain with no carving and does not use veneers; it combines new and old stylistic features, for example, the lyre-shaped splat would have been quite a new fashion while the use of stretchers with cabriole legs was becoming rather archaic. London makers tended to be in the vanguard with new ideas.
Condition
In good original condition, with few alterations or repairs.
Materials
Walnut.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 99
W. 61
D. 58
W. 61
D. 58
Marks
Incised ‘II’ on back seat rail suggesting the chair is part of a larger suite.
Provenance
Not recorded, but in the collection prior to 1993.
Notes
Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Antique Collectors' Club, 2009, p. 197, Plate 4:108.
Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd edition, 1762, Plates I-VIII.
Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd edition, 1762, Plates I-VIII.
