Footstool
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1580 (the Turkey-work cover)
Materials
Oak, upholstered in Turkey-work
Measurements
23 x 52 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127895
Summary
An oak and Turkey-work footstool, English, the cover made from pieced Turkey-work worked with two designs of foliage in yellow and green and blue flowers against a blue-dotted white ground, the legs block-turned and with ball feet. This stool is possibly a joint stool of the 17th century which has been reduced in height to form a foot stool. 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.