Chair
Category
Furniture
Date
1800
Materials
mahogany, horsehair, brass, sackcloth
Measurements
58 x 39 x 35 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Carlyle's House, London
NT 263501
Summary
A mahogany child's armchair, possibly Scottish, circa 1800, the rectangular stick back joined by shaped arms on turned baluster supports, with square tapering legs joined by a plain H-stretcher. Upholstered with close-nailed black horsehair fabric, lined with sackcloth and stuffed with horsehair.
Full description
Jane Carlyle's beloved childhood chair, brought to Cheyne Row from Jane's mother's house, Templand, in 1842. In a letter to Jane dated 25 April 1842 (Letters, vol 14), Thomas wrote: 'The wee chair! It was like to make me weep as it stood yonder at Templand, and so much had come and gone since it was occupied!' Thomas Carlyle's nephew, Alexander, wrote in the 1896 guidebook (p27ff) that it stood beneath the table in the China Closet in Thomas' lifetime. The chair is referred to in Thomas' will: 'To her [Mary Aitken, his niece] I give ... the little child's chair (in the China closet) which ... to my eyes has always a brightness as of Time's morning and a sadness as of Death and Eternity when I look on it; and which ... I have a weak wish to preserve in loving hands yet awhile when I am gone'.
Provenance
Owned by Jane Welsh, later Carlyle, from childhood and brought to 24 Cheyne Row (then 5 Cheyne Row) in 1842. Then by descent to the previous owners, the Harland family. Purchased by the National Trust in 2022. According to the 1896 'Illustrated Memorial Volume of the Carlyle's House Purchase Fund Committee', p. 46, 'Beneath the table [possibly NT 263499] generally stood the little armchair (Jane Welsh's when a child) which had been brought to Cheyne Road amongst the other Templand furnishings. It is thus referred to in Carlyle's Will : "To her [his niece, Miss M. C. Aitken] I give....the little child's chair (in the China closet) which ....to my eyes has always a brightness as of Time's morning and a sadness as of Death and Eternity which I look on it; and which...I have the weak wish to preserve in loving hands yet awhile when I am gone;" and in a letter to his wife, dated 25th April 1842, he says of it: "The wee chair! It was like to make me weep as it stood yonder at Templand, and so much had come and gone since it was occupied!"' By descent, On loan to the National Trust from the Carlyle family since 1979.