Erddig's 'floured Velvet Settee with Silver Frame' - circa 1720-6
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1720 - 1726
Materials
Silvered beechwood, silk velvet, webbing, later softwood reinforcements
Measurements
105 x 142 x 63.5 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1146958.1
Summary
A silvered beechwood sofa, one of a set of nine pieces of silvered beechwood seat furniture, English, circa 1720 - 1726, also including eight matching chairs [NT 1149658.2 - 9]. All upholstered in original cut and uncut crimson Spitalfields silk velvet. The sofa with a rectangular back and straight toprail above a seat between short scroll-over arms. The front and side seat rails with applied and glued silver and gesso fascias, 12.5mm thick, decorated with acanthus and foliage against a punched ground. Raised on five decorated cabriole legs with pronounced knees edged with 'C'-scrolls and pad feet. With later softwood reinforcements and later beech corner blocks beneath the seat.
Full description
This set recorded in the Withdrawing Room at Erddig in an inventory of 1726. Recent research has noted that all of the pieces in the set have decorated fascias applied directly to the seat rails. The raised edge of the fascias retain the drop-in seats of the chairs. This, together with corner struts bracing the seat rails, which were not usually required for drop-in seats, has suggested that these chairs were originally intended to be webbed and over-stuffed, and the removable seats were therefore an afterthought [Bowett]. The frames of this set of seat furniture were covered in gilt in the 19th century, to match the other furniture in the Saloon at Erddig; this finish was removed in 1976. All of the chairs have chiseled marks to their rear seat rails, which are probably contemporaneous with their manufacture. Some chairs also have inked numbers to the rear seat rails, and to the undersides of the seat pads. The same fabric covers a set of five silvered chairs, two dressing stools, a sofa and the State Bed in the State Bedroom at Powis Castle [NT 1181056]. (Entry adapted by Megan Wheeler, October 2018)
Provenance
Almost certainly acquired by John Meller (d. 1733) and listed in the 1726 inventory as in the Withdrawing Room at Erddig; noticed by John Loveday (1711 - 1789) when he visited in 1732. Thence by descent, and given by Philip Yorke III (1905 - 1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973.
References
Beard, 1997: Geoffrey Beard. Upholsterers and interior furnishing in England, 1530-1840. Bard studies in the decorative arts. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1997., Illustrated and discussed pp. 178 - 9; Figure 160 Bowett 2009, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740 (2009), Illustrated and discussed pp. 166, Plate 4:42 - 4:43 Cornforth, 2004: John Cornforth, Early Georgian interiors. New Haven: Published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2004., p. 281