Cheval fire screen
manner of Benjamin Goodison (c.1700 - 1767)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1740
Materials
Mahogany, parcel gilt, textile, pine, velvet, linen, gold leaf
Measurements
135.1 x 71.3 x 47.1 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 731652
Summary
A mahogany and parcel gilt fire screen in the manner of Benjamin Goodison (c.1700-1767) London, circa 1740. The top rail centred by a carved scallop shell with a garland of oak leaves and acorns. with a guilloche frame, raised on double scroll carved cheval legs with acanthus decoration and tied by a confirming stretcher.
Full description
The fire screen is almost certainly by the same hand as a mahogany and parcel gilt suite of seat furniture at Stourhead (NT731651). Adam Bowett discusses a chair from a set of ten made for Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford, probably for his country house at Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire. See plate 4:102 'Early Georgian Furniture 1714-1740' the maker is unknown, but payments to both John Boson (1740) and Benjamin Goodison (1756) are recorded in the North papers. Similar legs appear on tables supplied by Goodison to Hampton Court Palace in the 1730s and 40s notably a side table (RCIN 1195) and a pier table (RCIN 251) both with the carved roundels and acanthus on the front of the legs. This 'Kentian' style was popular in the middle years of the 18th century and adopted by several furniture makers, with no specific paper trail linking the suite to Stourhead or the Hoare family it is difficult to attribute an individual maker but Goodison would seem to be the forerunner. James Weedon (March 2018)
Provenance
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.
Makers and roles
manner of Benjamin Goodison (c.1700 - 1767) , furniture designer and maker
References
Bowett 2009, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740 (2009)