Armchair
style of George Hepplewhite (d.1786)
Category
Furniture
Date
1770 - 1799
Materials
Mahogany and cotton
Measurements
98 x 54 x 48 cm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1288272.1
Summary
A mahogany armchair, one of two chairs comprising an armchair and a side chair, British, late 18th century, in the style of Hepplewhite. (Snakeshead seat NT 1289386)
Full description
The chair features a humped top rail, the pierced back splat of stylized wheat sheaf form, flanked by shaped uprights, with shaped armrests on curved supports, the seat with serpentine front edge and the seat rail with moulded rim, on square-section tapering front legs joined to the rear splayed square-section legs with a H-stretcher, the rear legs joined by a single stretcher, the seat re-upholstered in Morris & Co 'Snakeshead' cotton in purple and brown. The Hepplewhite chairs in Snakeshead were part of a set of chairs rotated between Wightwick and London, Lady Mander had the reprint Snakeshead put on.
Provenance
In 1937 Sir Geoffrey Mander and his wife Rosalie gifted Wightwick Manor, its contents and gardens to the National Trust. Sir Geoffrey and his family continued to occupy and manage Wightwick adding to the collection in collaboration with the National Trust. Sir Geoffrey died in 1962 but Lady Mander continued to live at Wightwick until her death in 1988. These chairs are listed in the Wightwick Manor 1937 inventory.
Makers and roles
style of George Hepplewhite (d.1786), designer