Images(3)

Armchair, open

Date1750-1760

OriginEngland, London

MediumMahogany, beech, linen, iron, hair, wool and silk needlework on linen ground, brass

DimensionsOH: 40”; SH: 16”; OW: 28”; SW: 27”; SD: 24½”

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-179,4

DescriptionAppearance: Rectangular stuffed back with serpentine top, "S" shaped arms, rear portion of which are stuffed and front portion carved in assymmetrical manner with central quatrefoil; scrolled arm supports which merge into side rails; arm supports and seat rails molded on outer edges and carved in asymmetrical manner; "square", stuffed seat serpentine in front; front skirt carved in assymmetrical ribbon work with strawberry-shaped cabochon at middle; side skirts scrolled and carved; exposed back seat rail; straight molded on top, molded in assymmetrical scroll on bottom; cabrioled front legs molded on sides at edges; carved cross-hatches at shoulders; foliate carving at knees terminating in leafy scrolled feet on pads; cabriole rear legs with molded edges terminating in leafy scrolled feet on pads. Each chair covered in original 18th century needlework of the "Fulham" type; most of the needlework is in wool gros point with the birds done in wool and silk petit point; fronts of the chairbacks show an bird in a pastoral landscape surrounded by an elaborate scrolled architectural border with maskhead spitting water at bottom; chair backs covered in plain beige needlework; arms covered with portion of border design; chair seats embroidered in large fruit and flower designs within an architectural border matching that of chair back; predominant colors are beige, blue, green, red, and yellow.

Construction: Front legs extend into chamfered upholstery peaks. Rear legs extend into supports for stiles. Front and side seat rails are laminated, with secondary wood on top as tacking rabbet; rear seat rail laminated primary as the rear face, with secondary behind, and forming tacking rabbet; rails tenoned to legs, and originally supported by two glue blocks each leg, which were carved to match rail profile after application; front proper right joint further enforced by later curved bracket. Arm supports lapped over seat rails on the outside and screwed in place; arm supports likely tenoned into arm rests; Arms likely tenoned or screwed to stiles, with large plugs on rear face of stiles, possibly to hide screw head. Stiles attached to leg supports with nails (1 nail for proper left and 2 for proper right); stiles tenoned to crest rail; front top edge of crest rail chamfered; crest rail wider than stiles, narrow strips of wood make up difference of width at top and narrow for rest of stile height; front outside edges of stiles chamfered; tacking rail likely tenoned between stiles.

Upholstery: The needlework show cloth for both chairs survives, but most of the foundation upholstery does not. Upholstery for padded arm rests is entirely intact on both chairs, with stuffing directly on arms, covered in top linen, and topped with show cloth. Bottom linen and portions of deep-pink wool for the back of one chair (.3) survives. A piece of pink wool is wrapped around and currently tacked to the front of the lower back tacking rail, but would originally have been sewn to the bottom edge of the needlework show cloth. An additional large piece of pink wool spans the back and is nailed to the front of the crest rail, stiles, and lower tacking rail. The bottom linen for the back is nailed on top of the pink wool. Additional fragments of pink wool remain indicating that three pieces of wool were originally tacked to front faces of stiles and crest rail and wrapped around the those members and sewn to the top and sides of the front needlework show cover. The pink wool, wrapped around the back frame and spanning the back under the foundation linen, serves at the show material for the rear of the chair. Original decorative brass nails were apparently reused in successive upholstery campaigns and survive for both chairs.

Materials: Mahogany primary, beech secondary, foundation linen, tacks, hair stuffing, top linen, wool, wool and silk needlework on linen ground, brass nails.
Label TextSeats of this form were termed “French Chairs” by Thomas Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director. He maintained that “Both the Backs and Seats must be covered in with Tapestry, or other sort of Needlework.” Following that dictum, this chair retains its original needlework, as do many of the other eleven examples in the suite. Tradition holds that the needlework was designed and stitched by Lady Barbara North of Glemham, in Suffolk, England. However, professional needle workers also produced such work and may have created these covers.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceThese four chairs were originally part of a set of twelve, of which eight or nine survive from Glemham, Suffolk, the seat of Lord North (R.W.Symonds in a letter in the folder to John M. Graham dated July 20, 1955 says they were originally part of a set of eight and lists where they were in 1955, but an article about the chairs in "Old Furniture", Vol. II (Oct.-Dec., 1927) p. 130 Off. says there were twelve chairs and nine survived when the article was written). According to family tradition, the designs for the upholstery were drawn and worked by Lady Barbara North, daughter of the Eighth Earl of Pembroke who married Dudley North of Glemham in 1730 and died in 1755. The designs were in possession of the family until early in this century and one is illustrated in Percy Macquoid, A HISTORY OF ENGLISH FURNITURE: THE AGE OF MAHOGANY (London, 1906), fig.188-190. In 1913 the needlework designs were destroyed in a fire at Waldershare Park, Kent, seat of the Earl who owned them at that time.