Ladderback chair
Category
Furniture
Date
1800 - 1900
Materials
beechwood, ash and rush
Place of origin
Britain or Ireland
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1219711
Summary
A group of sixty-seven beech, ash and elm ladderback chairs, comprising four different styles of chair, British or Irish, 19th century. Style 1 Thirty-nine beech and ash chairs each with a shaped level top rail with two small applied beech dome-shaped caps, supported on two curved square-section uprights, the uprights joined by two shaped horizontal back splats, the rush seat on rounded tapering front legs joined to the gently splayed square-section rear legs by a H-stretcher with two central spindle stretchers, each side with a second higher-placed spindle stretcher, the rear legs also joined by a single low-placed spindle stretcher. Style 2 Ten beech, and ash or elm chairs each with a shaped level top rail supported on two square-section uprights, the uprights joined by two triangular-shaped horizontal back splats, the rush seat with plain seat rails (some absent), on turned and tapering front legs, and gently splayed square-section rear legs, two spindle stretchers to each side, a turned stretcher between the front legs and another between the rear two legs. Style 3 Fifteen beech, and ash or elm chairs each with a shaped level top rail supported on two square-section uprights, the uprights joined by two shaped horizontal back splats, the rush seat on rounded tapering front legs joined by a high-placed spindle stretcher, the front legs joined to the gently splayed square-section rear legs by a H-stretcher with two central spindle stretchers, the rear legs joined by a single stretcher. Style 4 Three beech and ash chairs each with a shaped level top rail atop another plain bar, supported on two shaped uprights, the uprights joined by two shaped horizontal back splats, the rush seat with plain seat rails on rounded tapering front legs, the front legs joined by a high placed spindle bar, the rear square-section legs joined by a low-placed spindle stretcher, two spindle stretchers to each side. The 1895 Mount Stewart inventory lists '131 Rush Seat Chairs' located in the Chapel. These chairs are probably part of that group.
Provenance
On loan to the National Trust from Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009) 1980, then accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2012.