Armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1640
Materials
Oak, cherry, elm
Measurements
102 x 58 x 38 cm
Place of origin
West Country
Order this imageCollection
Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire
NT 342701
Summary
An oak armchair, West Country, probably Somerset, circa 1640. The back with guilloche-carved toprail and scroll crest, above a panel boldly carved with a whirl-centred quatrefoil motif and lower rail with geometric detail, the cherrywood arms on turned supports, the seat with lunette frieze rails and turned legs with square stretchers, the front stretcher missing, the back uprights and the seat are replaced in elm.
Full description
The quatrefoil is one of the most characteristic motifs common to West Country chairs and chests. The scroll crest and the geometric pattern on the lower rail of the back features in Somerset and Salisbury chairs respectively. See V. Chinnery 'Oak Furniture, The British Tradition', ACC, 1979 and 2016, Fig. 4:71 - 4:85.
References
Chinnery 1979, Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: The British Tradition (ACC revised 2016), Fig 4:71 - 4:85