X-frame stool
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1625 - 1640
Materials
Beech covered in purple Ottoman velvet, applied leather, silver thread and brass nails
Measurements
49.5 x 58.5 x 46.0 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129414.1
Summary
One of a pair of X-frame beech stools upholstered in purple Ottoman velvet embroidered with stylised floral and foliate design in applied leather and adorned with silver thread. The stools are part of a very rare and still complete set including a chair of state with a rectangular frame (NT 129587) and one footstool (NT 129413). Emma Slocombe has argued that ‘the embellished velvet is a later addition to a set that was originally plain.’ (Slocombe 2014, pp. 311-2). The purple set of chair and stools can be traced back through the Knole inventories to the 1693 account of furniture removed from the Great Wardrobe at Hampton Court by Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, Lord Chamberlain to King William III.
Provenance
Acquired as a royal perquisite by Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset in his capacity of Lord Chamberlain to King William III. 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.
References
Slocombe 2014: Emma Slocombe,'Ancient Furniture: The Display and Alteration of Upholstered Seat Furniture and Textiles associated with the Brown Gallery, Knole, in the Nineteenth Century', Furniture History L (2014): 297-325