Stool
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1680 (the stool; the Turkey-work cover late 16th century)
Materials
Carved and joined fruitwood, topped by an oak board beneath woolen Turkey-work upholstery
Measurements
51 x 55 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127855.1
Summary
A stool, one of a pair of fruitwood and oak stools, English, probably originally the lower section of a late 17th century chair, both upholstered in earlier, late 16th century, Turkey-work. The stools with block and spiral-turned legs united by similar stretchers, the front mid-stretcher and carved with a scallop shell amidst scrolling foliage against a punched ground. The upholstery covering an oak board, and worked in blue, red, green and yellow wools against a white ground in a pattern of leaves and conical flowers. The Turkey-work cover has been cut from a late 16th century knotted pile carpet made in England to imitate carpets from Turkey and of a type which we know to have been at Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth in Bess' time. The Hardwick Hall inventory refers to several stools covered with 'Turkey'-work - there were five in Lady Shrewsbury's Withdrawing Chamber alone.
Provenance
By descent until, following the death of Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (1895 - 1950), Hardwick Hall and its contents were accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death duties and transferred to the National Trust, in 1959.