Upholstered armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1825
Materials
Pollard oak, oak, ebony, beech, brass, cotton
Measurements
102 x 74 x 68 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1146948.3.1
Summary
An upholstered armchair, or bergère, one of a set of four pieces of pollard oak and ebony-inlaid seat furniture, English, circa 1825. Comprising two sofas (NT 1146948.1 & .2) and two bergère chairs, or upholstered armchairs (NT 1146948.3.1 & .4.1). Possibly by Podmore & Powells of Chester. The sofas upholstered in russet brown worsted damask. The chairs in Regency stripe cotton, and with a seat cushion and a loose cushion. Having a straight scroll-over toprail and scroll-over arms applied at their front with a concentric boss. On four sabre supports, the front pair each headed by an inlaid ebony stylised rosette within a tablet, and fitted with acanthus-cast brass caps and castors. The rear legs with castors.
Full description
Part of a small collection of pieces of pollard oak furniture at Erddig, one of which (a breakfast table NT 1146943) is labelled for Podmore & Powells, a firm of upholsters and cabinet-makers based in nearby Chester, who were briefly in partnership between 1827 and 1829. In October 1829, the partnership was dissolved and the firm's assets were disposed at an auction on 16 October. Pollard oak was in vogue in the 1820s, and is sometimes called 'brown oak'. In September 2003, Christie's sold a pair of mahogany chiffoniers, bearing the same Podmore & Powells label as the sofa table at Erddig, probably supplied to Richard, 2nd Marquess of Westminster (1795-1869) of Eaton Hall, Cheshire. Now dispersed about the house, the collection of George IV pollard oak furniture at Erddig was possibly purchased to furnish a particular room by Simon Yorke II (1771-1834) and his wife Margaret (1778-1848) in the late 1820s.
Provenance
Given by Philip Yorke III (1905-1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973.