Panel-back armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1670 (and later)
Materials
Carved and joined oak
Measurements
121 x 64 cm
Place of origin
South Yorkshire
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127975
Summary
An oak double panel-back open armchair, South-West Yorkshire/Lancashire, circa 1654, elements of the frame/seat later. Topped by a scroll-carved cresting centred by a bud, above a slender panel carved with the date '1654' flanked by the initials 'TE', above a strapwork panel carved with leaves and scrolls around a central flowerhead, the ears carved as birds, with downswept arms on baluster-turned arms, an encircling seat, and block and baluster-turned front supports united by peripheral 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.