Images(5)

Armchair, Splat Back

DateCa. 1730

Attributed to Giles Grendey

OriginEngland, London

MediumWalnut, beech, and ash (modern)

DimensionsOH: 40 1/2"; OW: 28"; OD: 25"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1935-341,1

DescriptionAppearance: Splat-back armchair with compass seat, shells caved on knees with pendant bellflowers descending front cabriole legs terminating in ball and claw feet; rear legs rounded with rounded rear foot; back with rounded S-shaped stiles with flat, veneereed front faces; center of crest rail ornamented with tablet with flat top, carved with a shell over a solid veneered splat with extensions to stiles at center of splat, over a shoe; shaped and carved arms and arm supports. Replaced slipseat frame.

Construction
Side seat rails are tenoned and double-pegged into the rear legs and tenoned into the front legs. Front seat rail is tenoned into front legs and rear seat rail tenoned and double-pegged into rear legs. Horizontal, shaped ash corner blocks (modern) with incurving inner face are glued to seat rails inside front corners of chair frame. Horizontal shaped ash corner blocks (modern) are screwed with modern screws to the inside of rear seat frame corners. A shaped center pendant drop and shaped blocks are glued to the underside of the front and side seat rails by the legs and covered with the same veneer as the seat rails, extending the appearance of their height at those points. Carved knee blocks with shaped blocks behind are glued to the underside of front and side rails and front legs.

The arm supports are screwed to the side seat rails with two screws each, one from pockets on the inside of the seat rails the other through the inside of the seat rails upper rim. The arms are possibly tenoned into stiles and are secured with a plugged screw from the rear of the stile. The joint between the arm and arm support is not visible but a mortise and tenon is likely.

The stiles have extra walnut glued to their inner and outer faces at the extreme points of the S curves they form. The stiles are tenoned into the crest rail and pegged from the rear. The medial rail of the splat is tenoned into blocks of wood glued to the inside face of the back stiles. The upper section of the two-part splat is tenoned to the crest rail and to the medial rail of the splat. The lower section of the splat is tenoned to the medial rail and the shoe. The shoe is glued to the back seat rail.

The front facing surfaces of the splat, front and side chair rails, shoe, and seat back stiles are veneered. All other exposed surfaces are walnut.
Label TextThe design of this chair relates closely to chairs labeled by London cabinet and chairmaker, Giles Grendey (b. 1693-1780). Grendey was apprenticed to William Sherbourne and became free of the Joiners' Company in 1716. He was elected master of the company in 1766. His labels state"GILES GRENDEY / St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, / LONDON, /MAKES and Sells all sorts of / CABINET GOODS, / Tables, Glasses, &c." Grendey's chairs follow the London fashion popular in the 1730s and 1740s for curvilinear chair forms and robust carving.
Markings.1 Armchair: "I" chiseled inside rear seat rail
.7 Side chair: "III" chiseled inside rear seat rail