Armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1770
Materials
Mahogany, padouk, holly, silk
Measurements
95 x 57.5 x 55.5 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 582809
Summary
One open armchair from a set of seat furniture, English, circa 1770. Consisting of a daybed (NT 582808), three open armchairs (NT 582809, 582810, 582811) and a stool (NT 582812), all in mahogany and inlaid with holly and padouk and with drop-in seats upholstered in green ottoman silk, standing on square legs with corner spandrels and joined by square stretchers, the daybed and armchairs all with a distinctive wheel-back design having twelve spokes radiating from a fan motif and with roundel finials at the upper corners, the shaped and over-swept arms set back from the front of the seat and having foliate-inlaid terminals, the reverse of the backs with ribbed mouldings behind the spokes tapering to a central roundel.
Full description
There is a related set of chairs at Kedleston (NT 108602) and at Ham House (NT 1139575). A further related set of four armchairs was sold by the Rt. Hon. the Earl Poulett, Hinton House, Somerset, Sotheby's London, November 1, 1968, lot 54 and again, November 12, 1977, lot 110. These had caned seats, straight legs joined by stretchers and the front and back legs joined by ground stretchers. An elaborate example from the collection of the Fogg Art Museum and Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, was sold at Sotheby’s, October 16-17, 1987, lot 131; another sold, February 17, 1979, lot 161; a pair was sold, Christie's, London, April 15, 1999, lot 42 and a very similar pair of hall armchairs, but without the inlay to the backs, was sold, Christie's, New York, April 15, 2005, lot 219, although these examples had X-frame legs and arm supports.
Provenance
Gift from Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan 3rd Bt