Mahogany side chair with upholstered seat.
Identifier
FPF132
Title
Mahogany side chair with upholstered seat.
Date
1760-1770
Description
Mahogany side chair with pierced interlaced splat and upholstered seat.
Full Description
This mahogany side chair has an undulating channel-moulded crest rail that joins tapering and fluted back posts headed by acanthus-carved corners. The inverted baluster-shaped splat, pierced with interlaced gothic tracery and quatrefoils, joins a ‘shoe’ on the rear seat rail. A stuff-over seat with a serpentine front is covered with close-nailed dark-red striped horsehair cloth, and retains possibly the original grass and horsehair stuffing and 19th century webbing. The straight and square, ripple-moulded front legs have foliate brackets and terminate in square moulded feet which echo the ripple moulding on the legs. The back legs are square-section and flared, with squared undercut feet.
This form of chair is sometimes described as ‘in the style of Thomas Chippendale’ because the design of the splat bears similarities to chair-back designs in Chippendale's Director – see the original designs for plate 16 in the Director, 1762 (Victoria & Albert Museum, D.697-1906). Similar splats are found on a number of mid-18th century mahogany chairs; see for example the following, now in the collection of the National Trust: a set of six side chairs at Saltram, Devon (NT 871277); a side chair at Osterley House, Middlesex (NT 771767.3); a set of five side chairs at Dunster Castle, Somerset (NT 725800) and a side chair at Hatchlands Park, Surrey (NT 1166535). The details of the splats differ slightly but appear to be derived from the Chippendale design. The proliferation of chairs with this type of interlaced splat suggests a number of individual craftsmen working to a particular as yet unidentified design.
Interestingly, a set of six chairs comprising two armchairs and four side chairs in the collection of the National Trust at Sizergh Castle, Cumbria, is attributed to Gillows of Lancaster (NT 998125.1-6). This set is thought to be one referred to in a letter of February 1765 to Charles Strickland, and attributed to Gillows by Susan Stuart on the basis of its close resemblance to a very similar chair in the collection of Southampton University, which is signed 'Gillows' on the seat frame (Stuart, p. 147, Plate 91).
This side chair (FPF132) is distinctive for its surviving early grass and horsehair stuffing, which suggests a provincial maker. For example, Wright & Elwick of Wakefield, contemporaries of Chippendale, and who subscribed to the 1754 edition of the Director, are known to have used marsh grass in their upholstery: see a stool, part of the seat furniture supplied by or under the direction of Chippendale, possibly by Wright and Elwick, to Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, which was sold by Christie’s in 2018.
This form of chair is sometimes described as ‘in the style of Thomas Chippendale’ because the design of the splat bears similarities to chair-back designs in Chippendale's Director – see the original designs for plate 16 in the Director, 1762 (Victoria & Albert Museum, D.697-1906). Similar splats are found on a number of mid-18th century mahogany chairs; see for example the following, now in the collection of the National Trust: a set of six side chairs at Saltram, Devon (NT 871277); a side chair at Osterley House, Middlesex (NT 771767.3); a set of five side chairs at Dunster Castle, Somerset (NT 725800) and a side chair at Hatchlands Park, Surrey (NT 1166535). The details of the splats differ slightly but appear to be derived from the Chippendale design. The proliferation of chairs with this type of interlaced splat suggests a number of individual craftsmen working to a particular as yet unidentified design.
Interestingly, a set of six chairs comprising two armchairs and four side chairs in the collection of the National Trust at Sizergh Castle, Cumbria, is attributed to Gillows of Lancaster (NT 998125.1-6). This set is thought to be one referred to in a letter of February 1765 to Charles Strickland, and attributed to Gillows by Susan Stuart on the basis of its close resemblance to a very similar chair in the collection of Southampton University, which is signed 'Gillows' on the seat frame (Stuart, p. 147, Plate 91).
This side chair (FPF132) is distinctive for its surviving early grass and horsehair stuffing, which suggests a provincial maker. For example, Wright & Elwick of Wakefield, contemporaries of Chippendale, and who subscribed to the 1754 edition of the Director, are known to have used marsh grass in their upholstery: see a stool, part of the seat furniture supplied by or under the direction of Chippendale, possibly by Wright and Elwick, to Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, which was sold by Christie’s in 2018.
Condition
Back left leg and front left foot replaced.
There is a repair on the crest rail.
The splat has split and has repairs.
The shoe has had repairs to the rear face, unfinished.
There is a repair on the crest rail.
The splat has split and has repairs.
The shoe has had repairs to the rear face, unfinished.
Materials
Mahogany.
Upholstery.
Upholstery.
Physical Dimensions
H. 97
W. 58
D. 59
W. 58
D. 59
Marks
Inscribed in ink on the back of the front seat rail ‘YS No. 15’.
Parker Numbers
Cloth label stitched to webbing, marked with 3703.
2957.
2957.
Provenance
Purchased by Frederick Parker & Sons pre 1915 from Kennedy £5.5.0.
Notes
Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, Antique Collectors' Club, 2008, vol. I, pp. 144-147, Plates 88, 91.
