Dressing stool
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1825
Materials
Pollard oak, walnut, softwood, beech, silk, cotton
Measurements
49 x 49 x 36 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1146983
Summary
A pollard oak dressing stool, English, circa 1825, possibly by Podmore & Powells (fl.1827-9) of Chester (if so, made in 1827-9). The rectangular seat covered in silk and cotton needlework edged with braid. The seat rails burr walnut-veneered softwood. The legs of pollard oak, turned with an upper ring-turned ball or urn, above a tapering reeded column, and on turned feet.
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.