The Stourhead Music Room Mahogany Bergères
Thomas Chippendale II (1749 - 1822)
Category
Furniture
Date
1814
Materials
Mahogany, gilt, cane, textile, horsehair
Measurements
95 x 68 x 74 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 731581.2.1
Summary
One of a pair of mahogany, parcel gilt and cane seat bergères, by Thomas Chippendale the Younger (1749-1822) London, 1814. Commissioned for the Music Room at Stourhead by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The back with a top rectangular panel and moulded pierced oval guilloche design below within a moulded frame and continuing to conforming down swept arms. The caned seat raised on reeded turned tapered front legs and splayed reeded back legs, all on brass socket castors and with later seat cushions. The seat rail stamped with 'H'.
Full description
This pair of bergères are very similar in design to a set of ten chairs 'of fine Spanish Mahy' supplied to Stourhead in 1812 by Chippendale. They were commissioned for the Music Room and although the account is missing, the chairs are undisputedly by the same workshop. Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead Sir Richard Colt Hoare employed Thomas Chippendale the Younger (1749-1822) from 1795 to 1820 to supply furniture and furnishings for Stourhead in Wiltshire. The accounts submitted for his work are the largest known archive relating to Chippendale’s work. Out of the 163 pieces of furniture described in the accounts, 103 are still in the house, mostly in the rooms for which they were made. There was a fire in 1902 which destroyed the central part of Stourhead but fortunately most of the pictures and furniture from the ground floor were saved, the majority of the contents of the upper floors were destroyed. Chippendale the Younger worked with his father Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) for many years before the latter died. Much of the work he produced in the 1780s and 1790s continued the styles and techniques associated with the Chippendale firm. During these years he was completing or continuing commissions that the firm had been involved with including Harewood house, Nostell Priory, and Burton Constable amongst others. The furniture supplied for Stourhead shows the continued high quality and attention to detail that was expected from the Chippendale workshops, linked with simplicity of decoration and clarity of line. For further discussion and extensive published research see: Goodison, Judith ‘The life and work of Thomas Chippendale Junior’ PWP 2017 Goodison, Judith ‘Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead’ Furniture History Society 2005 (Vol. 41) pp. 57-116 Gilbert, Christopher ‘The life and work of Thomas Chippendale’ London 1978 Vol.1 pp.235, 267 Beard, Geoffrey & Gilbert, Christopher ‘The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840’ Furniture History Society 1986 pg.169 James Weedon (January 2018)
Provenance
Supplied for the Stourhead Music Room in 1814 by Thomas Chippendale the Younger. Given to the National Trust along with Stourhead House, its grounds, and the rest of the contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Marks and inscriptions
Items bear adhesive labels 'A' and 'B'
Makers and roles
Thomas Chippendale II (1749 - 1822), cabinetmaker
References
Goodison, 2005: Judith Goodison. “Thomas Chippendale the younger at Stourhead.” Furniture History 31 (2005): pp.57-116, pp. 57-116 Gilbert, 1978: Christopher Gilbert. The life and work of Thomas Chippendale. London: Studio Vista: Christie’s, 1978., pp. 235, 267 Beard and Gilbert, 1986: Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert (ed), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pg.169 Goodison, 2017: Judith Goodison, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale Junior, PWP London & New York 2017