Oak Canopy Settle
Charles Eamer Kempe (Sussex 1837 - London 1907)
Category
Furniture
Date
1875 - 1900
Materials
Oak, Steel, Paint, Gilding
Place of origin
England
Collection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1288303.5
Summary
An oak canopy settle with a bench seat containing two hinged cupboards with flaps secured by steel fittings. There are carved, painted and gilded tracery panels and beading on the top half and to the back. Four panels are painted with figures representing the seasons:- Winter inscribed HYEMNS; Spring inscribed VERA; Summer inscribed AESTAS; Autumn inscribed AVTVMNVS. Architect George Frederick Bodley and stained glass designer Charles Eamer Kempe were commissioned to decorate and furnish Light Oaks, in Pendleton, Salford, the home of Manchester banker Edward Stanley Heywood (1829-1914). This was a rare example of a domestic collaboration between Bodley and Kempe, who predominantly worked on ecclesiastical commissions. Light Oaks was demolished in the 1920s and, therefore, as one of only two surviving pieces from the scheme, this settle is a significant piece of furniture. Although Kempe chose the Four Seasons as the theme for the settle’s panels, it was his chief draughtsman artist at the time, Wyndham Hope Hughes, who created the designs and then painted the settle. According to his diary, Hughes began drawing the designs on 11th April 1871. The following day he carried the completed designs to Kempe’s glassworks where the settle was waiting to be painted. He recorded in his diary that he ‘pounced’ in ‘winter’ and began to paint it. This involved creating an accurate copy of his drawing on the settle panel by attaching the design to it and pricking the outline of it through the paper onto the wood. Ten days later Hughes had completed the painting of the four seasons figures and was able to begin the backgrounds. He recorded: ‘Put in the green part of the backgrounds of the FIGURES of the SETTLE’. The settle’s ‘four seasons’ designs were re-worked by Kempe in 1875 when painted glass versions were made for his home, Old Place, Lindfield, Sussex. These are now in the Drawing Room at Wightwick Manor.
Makers and roles
Charles Eamer Kempe (Sussex 1837 - London 1907), artist