X-frame chair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1740
Materials
Carved beechwood, gilded, silk damask upholstery
Measurements
101 x 64 x 71 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139998.6
Summary
A chair, English, circa 1735-40, from a set of six en suite with two sofas. The rectangular back and square seat are covered in gold and green silk damask. The chair stands on X-shaped supports at the front and the back, joined by a scrolling stretcher. The supports are carved with foliage and centred by a large acanthus leaf, terminating in scroll feet on pads. Of a design in the manner of William Kent, this suite must have been commissioned by the 4th Earl of Dysart for the Volury Room although no evidence can be found in his accounts. The chairs are mentioned in the 1844 inventory of Ham House and they can be seen in the H.W Brewer watercolour (c.1886). The suite was originally walter-gilded and then covered over with oil gilding, probably in the nineteenth century, the upholstery would have been originally of rich tricolor velvet.
Provenance
Probably commissioned by the 4th Earl of Dysart for the Volury Room where listed in the 1844 inventory of Ham House. Acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
References
Rowell 2013: Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham House, 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale University Press, New Haven & London 2013, p.289