'Ten mahogany french arm Chairs' - 1767
workshop of Thomas Chippendale (fl. 1766 - 1771 when operating without a business partner)
Category
Furniture
Date
15 Oct 1767 (invoiced)
Materials
Mahogany, beech, leather, upholstery, brass nails
Measurements
96 x 63.5 x 65 cm
Place of origin
St. Martin's Lane
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959713.2
Summary
An open armchair, one of a set of ten mahogany and upholstered open armchairs, English, 1767, made by Thomas Chippendale (fl. 1766 - 1771 when working alone with no business partner) for Sabine Winn's ante-chamber at Nostell Priory. Originally upholstered in blue morine fixed with brass nails, now the waisted back covered in red leather, and with padded arms terminating in scrolls and on moulded curving arm supports. The seat with serpentine front and with an undulating leather-upholstered apron. The cabriole legs carved to each knee with a cabochon between bellflowers and with scroll feet.
Full description
First mentioned in accounts of 15th October 1767 as 'To 10 Mahogany french arm Chairs stuff'd and cover'd with blue Morine and brass nail'd...£32 10s 0d', and again in an undated list (probably written in 1768) as '10 Mahogany French arm Chairs cover'd with blue morine'. They were, however, referred to in a letter of Chippendale to Sir Rowland on 1st October 1767 as 'finished'. In the same month, Chippendale wrote to Sir Rowland with the price: each chair was to cost £3 5. Referred to in accounts as 'french' because they have shaped and solid upholstered backs and cabriole forelegs. Some commentators have seen these chairs as transitional, marking Chippendale's move from the Rococo to the Neo-Classicism of the 1760s and 1770s. (Megan Wheeler, January 2018)
Provenance
Purchased by Sir Rowland Winn, 5th Baronet, referred to in accounts and correspondence in 1767 and thence by descent until accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties on the estate of Rowland Winn, 4th Baron Oswald (1916 - 1984), 1986.
Makers and roles
workshop of Thomas Chippendale (fl. 1766 - 1771 when operating without a business partner), cabinet maker
References
Boynton and Goodison, 1968: Lindsay Boynton, and Nicholas Goodison. “Thomas Chippendale at Nostell Priory.” Furniture History 4 (1968): pp.10-61., pp. 19 & 24 Boynton and Goodison, 1969: Lindsay Boynton and Nicholas Goodison. “The furniture of Thomas Chippendale at Nostell Priory.” Burlington Magazine III June 1969: pp.350-60., p. 352 Gilbert (1978): Christopher Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale (1978), 2 volumes., Vol. I, pp. 171, 177, 185 - 6, and Vol. II, Figures 140 & 141 Coleridge, 1968: Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale furniture: the work of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste. London: Faber, 1968., p. 98 and Plate 356 Boynton and Goodison, 1969: Lindsay Boynton and Nicholas Goodison, 'The furniture of Thomas Chippendale at Nostell Priory', Burlington Magazine III, May 1969: pp. 281-5., Figure 27