Chair
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1765
Materials
Padouk, oak, silk
Measurements
97 x 56.5 x 46.5 cm
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871346.2
Summary
A padouk chair, one of a near set of seven padouk chairs, Chinese Export, circa 1765. The set with minor variations in dimensions and design - NT 871346.3 significantly shorter, and possibly cut down; NT 871346.7 and .8 are armchairs. Upholstered in three different fabrics. This standard chair with a gadrooned pagoda-type toprail curving upwards at both ends and terminating in scrolls. The back with slender rails forming Chinese paling comprising a central rectangle and a central saltire and squares at each corner. The drop-in seat later upholstered in blue silk. The seat rails plain and raised on chamfered square-section legs headed by pierced 'C'-scroll and bar spandrels. The rear legs joined by a stretcher. -- A set of chairs made in padouk, and with the same toprail and spandrels heading the legs, survives at Kenwood House. Some of the set were recorded in 18th century inventories drawn up for Lord Mansfield.
Provenance
Date of introduction to Saltram not recorded, but at Saltram by 1951 and accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of full payment of Death Duty from the Executors of Edmund Robert Parker (1877 - 1951), 4th Earl of Morley.
Marks and inscriptions
Rear seat rail: No. 4 Rear seat rail: VI
References
The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Chairs for Viewing the World through Time, Hong-Kong, 7 June- 15 September 2014, p. 444