Panel-back armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
1660 - 1685 (and later)
Materials
Oak, joined and carved
Measurements
114 x 64 cm
Place of origin
South Yorkshire
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127902
Summary
An oak panel-back open armchair, English, probably South Yorkshire/Derbyshire, circa 1660 - 1680, with some later elements, the cresting rail boldly carved with 'S'-scrolls flanking a central cartouche, the back panel with a foliate and floral vine issuing from a mound of concentric circles, and with small flowerheads of many petals, beneath a top edge carved with cusps, and between uprights and ears carved with leaves, the downswept scroll-ended arms raised on supports turned with multiple rings, the seat encircling the arms and the seat rails run-moulded and hatched with diagonal lines, raised on block- and baluster-turned legs united by plain stretchers. -- Much of the 16th and 17th century oak at Hardwick Hall, the indigenous pieces aside, was probably purchased by the 6th Duke in the 19th century to enhance the Elizabethan feel of the property, much as his contemporary, Charles Winn of Nostell Priory, is known to have done (Westgarth, Raikes). The 6th Duke is recorded, for instance, as having bought 'oak Arm chairs' in 1846.
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.
References
Westgarth 2009, M. Westgarth, 'A Biographical Register of Nineteenth Century Antique and Curiosity Dealers', Regional Furniture XXIII (2009), 1 - 205 Raikes, 2003: S.Raikes. ““A cultivated eye for the antique”: Charles Winn and the enrichment of Nostell Priory in the nineteenth century.” Apollo 157.494 (2003): pp.3-8.