Panel-back armchair
Category
Furniture
Date
1571
Materials
Carved, turned and joined oak, inlaid now with what is probably pitch, but originally probably inlaid with timber
Measurements
122.5 x 58.5 x 43 cm
Place of origin
Westmorland (England)
Order this imageCollection
Sizergh Castle, Cumbria
NT 997985
Summary
A rare oak and inlaid panel-back open armchair, probably Westmorland, dated 1571. Of joined and pegged construction. The toprail embellished with a cornice-type upper moulding, and inlaid 'WAS 1571', the initials spaced by dots. Probably once inlaid with bog-oak, this is now lacking in places. The back panel with applied 'panel' mouldings around further applied mouldings forming a lozenge. The arms flat and outswept, with circular terminals, and decorated to the top with a run of guilloche. The seat boarded and above a front seat rail with run moulding and with ogee-shaped bottom edge. The arms raised on stepped arm supports descending to simple baluster- and ring-turned front legs with block feet. The rear supports of rectangular-section. United by rectangular-section foot stretchers. This chair has lost some height due to wear.
Full description
Related to a pair of panel-back open armchairs at Sizergh dated 1570 and bearing only Alice's initials, NT 997986.1 & 2, although with differences. This chair is less decorated, relying on simple mouldings as decoration for the toprail, which does not arch. The arms, too, are carved to their top surface and, unlike the unusual treatment of the related pair, have plain rectangular-section rear uprights into which the arms are tenoned. The arm supports, with a pronounced step, are very similar, as too are the front legs, albeit with an additional medial turning which NT 997986.1 & 2 do not share. These chairs are a remarkable survival, commissioned by the Stricklands as part of refurbishment works undertaken in phases at Sizergh in the late 1550s, 1560s and 1570s. It is unclear why this chair, as well as three chests at Sizergh [NT 998159.1 - .3] bear Walter Strickland's initials, even though all four pieces of furniture were made up to two years after his death in 1569. The related pair of chairs, dated 1570, only one year after Walter's death, bear Alice's initials alone. The lozenge mouldings to this chair and NT 997986.1 & .2, match the paneling in what is now the 'Old Dining Room' at Sizergh (probably denoted in the inventory of 1569 'thei chamber next Mr. Tempest chamber where thei dine'), a room which contains an overmantel dated 1563, & the paneling in the Boynton Room, which has an overmantel (the latest in the house) dated 1575. Also related to NT 997990 & NT 997991, chairs which are undated but which must have been made at the same period. Both have mouldings applied to their back panel to form a rectangle, and may thus have been made for a different room in the house. The present Dining Room, which was Walter Strickland's 'Great Chamber' and bears an overmantel dated 1564, has mouldings applied to its panels to form rectangles and so too does the now-called Queen's Room, next to the Dining Room, which once served as Walter Strickland's 'Withdrawing Chamber'. Stylistically, this chair is Renaissance in character, if restrained. The other dated furniture and fixtures at Sizergh are believed to have been made by immigrant, probably Flemish, craftsmen who worked at Sizergh over several decades, and so might this chair have been. However, they are English in feel, and much simpler than the overmantels, for instance, so may well have been made by different - possibly English - craftsmen. The inventory of Sizergh taken on 27th April 1569 associated with Walter Strickland's will mentions various chairs; the one in the Lord's Chamber - the most expensive - was 3s 4d. A publication of 1908 by Daniel Scott transcribes another document, taken on 28th June 1569, which lists the contents of some rooms, but groups other pieces by category under titles such as 'Woddewarke'. 8 'newe chayres' were listed, as were one 'ney [new?] lytle chayres for a woman or chyld' and two 'old chayres off lynd' [lime?]. There are no chairs dated 1569 or earlier, and so although dated 1571, it is possible that these chairs were made prior to Walter's death, but carved and inlaid at a later date. (Megan Wheeler, 2016)
Provenance
Probably commissioned by Walter Strickland (1516 - 1569) and/or Alice Strickland (c. 1520 - 1588) as part of building and refurbishment works at Sizergh Castle in the late 1550s and 1560s. Photographed in the Banqueting Hall in Country Life in 1906. Thence by descent, and given by Henry Hornyold Strickland (1890 – 1975) with Sizergh Castle and its estates in 1950.
Marks and inscriptions
Toprail: W . A . S 1571
References
Sizergh Castle, Country Life (June, 1906), Vol. XIX, No. 495., p. 944 Scott (1908), Daniel Scott, The Stricklands of Sizergh Castle, p. 109