Chair of state
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1600 - circa 1625
Materials
Beech covered in crimson velvet and crimson figured damask with silk and gold passementerie
Measurements
133.5 x 84.0 x 60.0 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129443
Caption
Flamboyant Royal Stuart furniture - this example is marked HC, from the Palace of Hampton Court, its former home.
Summary
An X-framed throne-like armchair or chair of state, English, c.1600-1625 (or possibly 1661), upholstered in crimson velvet overlaid with braid bands and bosses to the borders, and a very large cushion. The back is divided into two panels by gold thread fringe and surmounted by egg-shaped finials. The chair of state is very similar to those made during the reign of James I, and indeed it looks almost identical to the one on which the first Stuart King is enthroned in the state portrait from Daniel Mytens’s studio hung above the present chair in the Leicester Gallery at Knole (129891). The canvas under the seat is stamped in black ‘HC 1661’ with a royal crown, clearly referring to Hampton Court. Emma Slocombe has argued that the ‘rare royal stamp [indicates] the year of an inventory rather than that of production’ (Slocombe 2014). A second, very similar X-framed chair of state at Knole upholstered in cloth of gold rather than crimson damask, is equally stamped on the canvas ‘HC 1661’ (129421).
Provenance
Presumably 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.
Marks and inscriptions
HC
References
Symonds 1945: R. W. Symonds, 'The Upholstered Furniture at Knole I', Burlington Magazine LXXXVI (May 1945): 110-15 Beard, 1997: Geoffrey Beard. Upholsterers and interior furnishing in England, 1530-1840. Bard studies in the decorative arts. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1997. 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