Child's chair
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet Cooper (1768 - 1841)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1830
Materials
Painted wood, cane
Measurements
96 x 30.5 x 24.5 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1331873
Summary
A child's deportment or correction chair, English, circa 1830. Sometimes referred to as an Astley Cooper chair, in the Gothic taste, polychrome painted, the back with three vertical ring-turned spindles and pierced quatrefoils above and below, the oval cane seat with ring-turned legs and outswept feet joined by multiple stretchers. In notebook no.5, page 19 (1340945.5) Charles Wade refers to: 'Top Royal no.642 Spinster's Chair (?) child's chair. Painted fawn gray. Lined out with Blue, ivory & black, belonged to Bridget Lloyd who married Augustine Bulwer 1895'. Includes a sketch with dimensions. 'Astley Cooper Correction Chair for children, English, late 19th century. (4)' (M. Jessup).
Full description
This deportment chair is also known as an Astley Cooper Chair. It was the invention of Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841), a surgeon and anatomist. He developed it to correct faulty posture in children: the design of the chair forces children to sit on it correctly. Good posture meant keeping a straight back and upright head, and moving in a dignified and elegant way. It was considered very important, partly for medical reasons but also for discipline.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with Snowshill Manor in 1951 by Charles Paget Wade.
Makers and roles
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet Cooper (1768 - 1841), designer
References
Wade, 1944: Charles Paget Wade, Contents of Snowshill Manor. Volume 5 Second Floor, 1944, Page 19