Stool
Newton and Son
Category
Furniture
Date
1810 - 1820
Materials
Ebonised beech, ivory, wool, silk? linen and horsehair
Measurements
41.7 x 107.5 x 53.3 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
NT 354292.2.1
Summary
One of a pair of ebonized beech and ivory mounted stools, by James Newton, English, circa 1815. Upholstered in a modern needlepoint fabric depicting flowers and plants, with a moulded seat rail with applied ivory roundels, on pear shaped legs with carved anthemion motifs on turned ivory ball feet.
Full description
Bearing the paper trade label of Newton & Sons, upholsterers, 63 Wardour Street, Soho James Newton (1760–1829) recorded as trading from 63 Wardour Street, London between 1773-1821. Newton was a highly-regarded London cabinet-maker and upholder who provided a range of services (house refurbishment, upholstery, appraisals, furniture making). The bulk of his recorded clientele consisted of members of the aristocracy. Newton trained in the celebrated workshops of Lawrence Fell & William Turton. He executed commissions, inter alia, for Matthew Boulton at Soho House, the Earl of Jersey at Osterley, and Sir Gilbert Heathcote. Familiar with the fashions of the Regency period, he is listed as a subscriber to Thomas Sheraton’s 1803 ‘Cabinet Dictionary’; a pair of chairs with close concordances to a design of Thomas Hope’s Household Furniture’ (plate 22), and bearing his label may be viewed at the Royal Pavilion Brighton. See also Musgrave, Clifford, Regency Furniture (Faber and Faber, 1949), plate 12A (James Weedon 2016)
Provenance
Part of the Lothian Collection. The Hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1940 by Philip, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940).
Marks and inscriptions
Inside seat rail: 'Newton and Son, Upholsterers, 63 Wardour Street, Soho'
Makers and roles
Newton and Son, manufacturer Newton and Son, retailer
References
Beard, Geoffrey W. Dictionary of English furniture makers, 1660-1840 1986., page 644