Chair
Agnes Garrett (1845 - 1935)
Category
Furniture
Date
c. 1875
Materials
Ebonised wood, Velvet, Brass
Measurements
82 x 48.5 x 43 cm
Order this imageCollection
Standen House and Garden, West Sussex
NT 1216999
Summary
An ebonised circular-seat armchair, English, circa 1880. The back with three vertical spindles centred with tablets and affixed to a tablet-centred toprail and plain lower rail, each arm with a similar spindle gallery and turned front supports, the seat covered in red velvet with brass studs, standing on turned tapering legs joined by multiple stretchers.
Full description
Cousins Rhoda (1841-1882) and Agnes Garrett (1845-1935) trained in the architectural office of J.M. Brydon before setting up their own interior design company in 1875 which aimed to bring fresh designs to a wider middle-class public. Together they wrote and published 'Suggestions for House Decoration' in 1876, part of the 'Art at Home' series of interior decoration and household taste manuals published by Macmillan. They also decorated 4, Upper Berkeley Street, the home of Agnes's sister, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first English woman permitted to qualify as a doctor.See 'Suggestions for House Decoration' where this chair is illustrated facing page 61.
Provenance
The chair was designed in c.1875 by the firm of A&R Garrett, established by cousins Agnes and Rhoda Garrett in 1874, based at their home in Gower Street, London. The chair is illustrated in their book Suggestions for House Decoration in Painting, Woodwork and Furniture, 1876. The chair was bequeathed to The Albert Dawson Educational Trust (TADET) by Peter Rose (1927-2020) as part of his estate. He, together with Albert Gallichan (1930-2001), amassed an important collection of 19th century British decorative art. Gifted to the National Trust by the Trustees of TADET in 2022.
Makers and roles
Agnes Garrett (1845 - 1935), interior designer Rhoda Garrett (1841 - 1882), interior designer