Metamorphic settee
previously catalogued as by Thomas Chippendale (Otley 1718 - London 1779)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1850 - circa 1870
Materials
Mahogany, beech and pine rails, brass castors and nails, leather cover, rope and hessian forming bed frame
Measurements
100.5 x 131.5 x 77 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959764
Summary
A mahogany metamorphic settee, circa 1850 - 1870, in the manner of the 1760s. The back formed as a pair of chairs, with undulating toprails and interlaced riband-carved splats, between open moulded arms on scroll-carved arm supports. The seat upholstered in brass-nailed tan leather, the whole seat unfolding to form a bed. Raised to the front on three foliate scroll-carved cabriole supports terminating in ball and claw feet, and to the rear on outswept supports. Fitted with castors.
Full description
Once part of a larger set comprising six chairs, acquired by Rowland, 1st Baron St. Oswald circa 1883, either at Phillips, Son & Neale of Bond Street, or at auction in Wakefield. The six chairs lost in the Nostell Priory fire of 1980, which destroyed the Breakfast Room and all its contents. For many years, this settee (and its accompanying chairs) were thought to have been made by Chippendale (see, for instance, Coleridge, 1968) because their backs conform closely to a design in the Director (1st edition, 1754, Plate XVI) described by him as a 'Chair with Ribband backs'. A critical examination of this daybed's design features, such as its 'improbably tortuous' toprail, as well as a review of other known riband-back chairs, has found that all were probably made in the 19th century (Wood, 2015). (Megan Wheeler, February 2018)
Provenance
Purchased by Rowland, 1st Baron Oswald (1820 - 1893) circa 1883, photographed in the Top Hall circa 1907, 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
previously catalogued as by Thomas Chippendale (Otley 1718 - London 1779) , cabinetmaker
References
Brockwell 1915 Maurice Walter Brockwell, Catalogue of the Pictures and Other Works of Art in the Collection of Lord St Oswald at Nostell Priory, London 1915, pp. 178 - 181, Plate XXV Edwards, Ralph, 1894-1977 shorter dictionary of English furniture : 1964., p. 143, Figure 106 Coleridge, 1968: Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale furniture: the work of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo Taste. London: Faber, 1968., Figures 176 & 177 Wood 2015, Lucy Wood, 'Tied up in knots: Three centuries of the ribbon-back chair' in Furniture History Journal, Volume LI, 241 - 270., 241 - 270, illustrated Figure 14 and discussed pp. 251 - 252