Stool
John Russell (c.1773-1822)
Category
Furniture
Date
1783
Materials
Carved and polished walnut and beech upholstered in crimson silk damask
Measurements
56.0 x 61.0 x 48.0 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129411.2
Summary
One of a pair of polished walnut stools on cabriole legs with a stuffed seat upholstered in crimson silk damask. As Martin Drury explains, it was customary, until about 1830, for British ambassadors ‘to be equipped at the expense of the sovereign with an allowance of plate, a portrait of the sovereign, a state canopy, a chair, two stools, a foot stool and chapel furnishings’ (Drury 1985). The present stools, stylistically archaic, come en suite with a chair of state (NT 129410). The set may either be the one supplied by John Russell to the George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, British Ambassador to the court of Louis XVI in 1783 or to his successor, John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (Ambassador from 1783-1789). Because the Duke of Manchester’s embassy was so short lived, it is likely that Dorset took over his furniture. Manchester’s chair and stools are recorded to have been supplied by John Russell, joiner and chairmaker, who also supplied the chair of state for Lord Whitworth, appointed Ambassador to Paris in 1802, and also preserved at Knole (NT 129592).
Provenance
Possibly supplied by John Russell, joiner and chairmaker, to George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester in 1783 and used by John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset in his capacity of British Ambassador to the court of Louis XVI from 1783 to 1789. Knole and the majority of its furniture were accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death duties and transferred to the National Trust in 1946.
Makers and roles
John Russell (c.1773-1822), joiner
References
Drury, 1985: Martin Drury. “Two Georgian chairs of state and a state canopy at Knole.” Furniture History 21 (1985): pp.243-9.