Mahogany armchair carved with eagle heads.
Identifier
FPF112
Title
Mahogany armchair carved with eagle heads.
Date
1740-1750
Description
A mahogany armchair carved with eagles’ heads, with cabriole legs and ball and claw feet, and an upholstered seat.
Full Description
An exceptional mahogany armchair, with a carved and pierced splat in the back, serpentine arms, cabriole front legs ending in ball and claw feet and tapering back legs ending in pad feet. The back, with its central splat and crest rail, is finely carved with interlacing and foliage, with eagles’ heads at the top corners of the crest rail. The arms terminate in out-swept scrolls carved with eagles’ heads, and there are further eagles’ heads carved on the brackets between the front legs and the seat rails. The carving and piercing of the ball and claw feet is equally skilful. The seat upholstery with its leather cover is probably 19th century. The chair is stamped ‘SW’ twice under the rear seat rail.
This chair is very high quality, designed and made with a lightness not usually found on chairs of this type and date. The use of mahogany has allowed the maker to reduce each part to the smallest possible section without sacrificing strength. The piercing of the splat in particular is extreme and the carving and interlace have further reduced its thickness. The decorative theme of eagles, the symbol of Jupiter, is continued from the crest rail to the out-scrolled arm terminals and the front legs. Here the scrolling ears carved with feathered eagles’ heads again seem to have been designed to emphasise the feeling of lightness, as do the ball and claw foot details, where the talons and claws are pierced through and carved in full relief. This piercing is a considerable rarity. The type of mahogany, the cabriole legs, the design and vocabulary of Roman decorative detail such as eagles’ heads and acanthus, all date this chair to the 1740s. It must have been made by an accomplished maker for a wealthy client. It retains an excellent colour and patination.
When this chair was purchased by Parkers in the 1920s the original crest rail had been replaced with an inappropriate one of a later, eared design, as recorded in a photograph in the Frederick Parker Archive. Parkers decided to restore the chair with a more suitable and carefully researched crest and the result is an excellent example of the skills of their craftsmen at the time. The chair was then shown at the 1928 BADA Exhibition, after which it became one of the Company’s stock reproduction models. One of these, dating from the 1930s, is also in the Collection (FPF382) and offers an interesting comparison.
This chair is very high quality, designed and made with a lightness not usually found on chairs of this type and date. The use of mahogany has allowed the maker to reduce each part to the smallest possible section without sacrificing strength. The piercing of the splat in particular is extreme and the carving and interlace have further reduced its thickness. The decorative theme of eagles, the symbol of Jupiter, is continued from the crest rail to the out-scrolled arm terminals and the front legs. Here the scrolling ears carved with feathered eagles’ heads again seem to have been designed to emphasise the feeling of lightness, as do the ball and claw foot details, where the talons and claws are pierced through and carved in full relief. This piercing is a considerable rarity. The type of mahogany, the cabriole legs, the design and vocabulary of Roman decorative detail such as eagles’ heads and acanthus, all date this chair to the 1740s. It must have been made by an accomplished maker for a wealthy client. It retains an excellent colour and patination.
When this chair was purchased by Parkers in the 1920s the original crest rail had been replaced with an inappropriate one of a later, eared design, as recorded in a photograph in the Frederick Parker Archive. Parkers decided to restore the chair with a more suitable and carefully researched crest and the result is an excellent example of the skills of their craftsmen at the time. The chair was then shown at the 1928 BADA Exhibition, after which it became one of the Company’s stock reproduction models. One of these, dating from the 1930s, is also in the Collection (FPF382) and offers an interesting comparison.
Condition
The crest rail and shoe at the base of the splat were replaced, c. 1928.
Part of the scrolling on the back splat is missing.
Part of the scrolling on the back splat is missing.
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 97
W. 76
D. 61
W. 76
D. 61
Marks
Stamped ‘SW’ twice under the rear seat rail.
Parker Numbers
Paper label inside seat rail, printed: ‘From Frederick Parker & Sons, Ltd. 20, Newman Street, Oxford Street, London, W.I. High Wycombe and Cowley.’ Also inscribed in pen: ‘OM 3570’.
Paper label inside seat rail, typed: ‘117. A George II. Armchair. Circa 1745. With interlaced and carved back, cabriole legs with eagles’ heads and claw and ball feet (top rail restored).
Printed label on underside of seat rail: ‘Art Treasures Exhibition 1928 No.’ Inscribed in pen: ‘117’.
Associated numbers: 3565. 4779.
Paper label inside seat rail, typed: ‘117. A George II. Armchair. Circa 1745. With interlaced and carved back, cabriole legs with eagles’ heads and claw and ball feet (top rail restored).
Printed label on underside of seat rail: ‘Art Treasures Exhibition 1928 No.’ Inscribed in pen: ‘117’.
Associated numbers: 3565. 4779.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons, 1920s
Notes
Exhibited at the British Antique Dealers’ Association’s Exhibition of Art Treasures at the Grafton Galleries, London, 1928, exhibit no. 117.
Exhibited at Decorex, Sept 2016.
For comparable chairs with eagle head carving see Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Yale University Press, 2008, Vol. I, pp 501-7 and 508-516.
Exhibited at Decorex, Sept 2016.
For comparable chairs with eagle head carving see Lucy Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Yale University Press, 2008, Vol. I, pp 501-7 and 508-516.
