Upholstered armchair
manner of George Smith (London c.1786-1826)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1810
Materials
Ebonised beech, beech, brass, textile
Measurements
97 cm (H); 83 cm (W); 78 cm (D)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Lacock, Wiltshire
NT 995819
Summary
A brass mounted, ebonised beech and upholstered armchair, after designs by George Smith (c.1786-1826) English, circa 1810. Later upholstered, with out scrolled arms and loose seat cushion, raised on front stylised lion's legs headed by cast rosettes and raised on brass castors.
Full description
These chairs with the digitigrade lion's legs display the influence of the Regency designs of George Smith, whose drawings were widely distributed in his pattern book of 1808, ‘A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration’, in which he proudly declared himself the ’Upholder Extraordinary to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’. See plates 55,56 & 59. Smith drew on the French Empire style, largely popularised by Charles Percier and Pierre-François Fontaine, Napoleon’s official architects. They published the first instalment of 'Recueil de Décorations Intérieures comprenant tout ce qui a Rapport à Ameublement' in 1801, a hugely influential pattern book that not only provided the blueprint for the French Empire style but must have influenced other British designers such as Thomas Hope, Charles Heathcote Tatham and Henry Holland, all of whom embarked on Grand Tours to draw on the influences of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. (James Weedon, August 2019)
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust with the family collection of Lacock Abbey contents in situ from Mrs. Petronella Burnett-Brown in December 2009.
Makers and roles
manner of George Smith (London c.1786-1826), furniture designer
References
Smith, George 'A collection of Designs for Household Furniture' London 1808