Carved mahogany side chair with cabriole legs.
Identifier
FPF121
Title
Carved mahogany side chair with cabriole legs.
Date
1735-1745 and c. 1910.
Description
Carved mahogany side chair with pierced splat and cabriole legs.
Full Description
This mahogany chair in the rococo style has a serpentine crest rail with an open fret cartouche and scrolls. It joins tapering and partially fluted back posts. The pierced splat is elaborately carved with interlaced moulded ‘S’ scrolls and foliate garlands. The stuff-over seat is upholstered in a 20th century yellow Genoese velvet cover with two rows of brass nails around the seat rail. The webbing is early and later 20th century. The chair is raised on carved cabriole front legs terminating in pad feet, which are possibly original but with later carving that comprises leaf-carving and a rippled background. The back legs are flared, rounded in section and with rounded feet.
The chair was made up in c.1900 using parts of an 18th century chair: the crest rail, back legs and possibly front legs, although these have later carving. The splat is well made but with a fussiness which lacks the elegance of 18th-century work. The chair was probably made as a fake and sold as a genuine antique: the price paid by the Parkers in 1920 indicates they assumed it was genuine. It is a good example of what was common practice in the trade at this period.
Similar designs for chairs appear in the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1762). Chippendale advised that: ‘The Seats look best when stuffed over the Rails, and have a Brass Border neatly chased; but are most commonly done with Brass Nails, in one or two Rows’. He also wrote that the dimensions of chairs were sometimes less ‘to suit the Chairs to the Rooms’ (ibid.), meaning that parlour chairs might be smaller and more delicate than dining chairs. In this case, it was probably one of a set of dining chairs.
The chair was made up in c.1900 using parts of an 18th century chair: the crest rail, back legs and possibly front legs, although these have later carving. The splat is well made but with a fussiness which lacks the elegance of 18th-century work. The chair was probably made as a fake and sold as a genuine antique: the price paid by the Parkers in 1920 indicates they assumed it was genuine. It is a good example of what was common practice in the trade at this period.
Similar designs for chairs appear in the 3rd edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1762). Chippendale advised that: ‘The Seats look best when stuffed over the Rails, and have a Brass Border neatly chased; but are most commonly done with Brass Nails, in one or two Rows’. He also wrote that the dimensions of chairs were sometimes less ‘to suit the Chairs to the Rooms’ (ibid.), meaning that parlour chairs might be smaller and more delicate than dining chairs. In this case, it was probably one of a set of dining chairs.
Condition
The back seat-rail is probably 18th century, the front and side seat-rails are later.
The crest rail and back legs are original, the splat and shoe are later. The back legs have been re-tipped.
The front legs may be original and may have later carving.
The drop-in seat is later and has too much stuffing; in the 18th century British dining chairs seats were quite flat, as shown in Chippendale’s Director illustrations.
The ear from the left front leg is broken off (retained).
The crest rail and back legs are original, the splat and shoe are later. The back legs have been re-tipped.
The front legs may be original and may have later carving.
The drop-in seat is later and has too much stuffing; in the 18th century British dining chairs seats were quite flat, as shown in Chippendale’s Director illustrations.
The ear from the left front leg is broken off (retained).
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 100
W. 60
D. 61
W. 60
D. 61
Parker Numbers
OM 5989. See Frederick Parker Archive, Box 55, FPA050. Page 195.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons for £17.17.6 on 23rd May 1920.
Notes
Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762, Plates XIII-XIV.
