Venetian, late 16th century

Sgabello chair, carved and stained walnut, partly gilt (see below). The back rest chair is urn-shaped, emblazoned with the star of the Steno family of Venice on the crest, and decorated with a bearded satyr mask. The seat is shaped like an elongated octagon with gadrooned edges at the front and sides, and its surface is flat. The side aprons immediately below the seat are trapezoidal, with ogee-shaped bottom edges. The front board or legs is vase-shaped, decorated with a bearded satyr mask, and terminating in foliate lions' feet.

The back rest is crowned with a crest formed by two brackets converging above the Steno family star. In the bottom corners of crest are two husks. The crest rests on two tiers of friezes - the upper one gadrooned and the lower one husk-and-pod. The bearded mask is flanked by two strap-like borders decorated with a vine-leaf scrolls and crowned by two narrow converging scrolls that sprout from the main straps. The space between these scrolls and the bottom of the husk-and-pod frieze is filled with imbricated disks, converging towards the centre. The borders scroll like an 's' at the bottom and curl over at the top revealing scales on the other side. These rest on a gadrooned base, immediately above the seat. The five edges, making up the front and sides of the octagon are gadrooned, whereas the three at the back are lobed in a fish tale pattern and left ungadrooned. The front board or legs is surmounted by a broad chain frieze, with a flower in each circle, resting on a narrow ribbon frieze immediately below the seat. The satyr mask and vine scroll borders are similar to those on the back rest, but they terminate in lions' paws with foliate shins rather than 's' scrolls. A husk stretches from between the paws to the chin of the satyr.

The back and front boards, forming the legs, were probably each made from one piece of wood. They are fixed with two nails at each end to the side aprons, which link them together. The seat is fixed with two nails each to the tops of the front and back boards. The backrest is also made of one piece of wood and terminates in a wedge, which fits through a slot at the back of the seat and is held in position by three smaller wedges. The back rest and front board are chamfered at the back, but the back board, a later replacement, are not. The grain runs vertically along the back rest and back and front boards, horizontally along the aprons, and back to front (i.e. vertically) along the seat.

The right foot of the front board is broken off and the left one has been replaced. The back board is replaced, as are the side paws and the seat. The back rest and the front board probably date from about 1570.

The gilding has acquired a dirty yellow surface over the ages. Bole is visible on the star on the back and a single husk between the paws. Otherwise, white gesso rather than bole tends to show through underneath. (Are there traces of early gilding on the right lock of hair of the mask on the back rest?)

Gilding is applied to various highlights of the back rest, seat and front board. On the crest, these include the borders of scrolls, the star, husks in the corners, the edges of the individual gadroons and the narrow guilloche moulding. On the main part of the back rest, these include highlights of the faces of the mask, such as the hair, beard and stylized wiskers, as well as the stems and leaves of the vine and the scales at the reverses of the borders at the top. Traces of gilding, mostly in the form of red bole, are detectable on the individual ovolos of the gadrooning round the edge of the seat. Gilded highlights on the front board are as follows: the links in the chain frieze, the pommels of the rosettes immediately below the seat. Likewise the edges of the borders, and vine leaves framing the satyr mask, as well as the converging scrolls above his head; the satyr's hair and whiskers, and husk immediately below his chin, and the foliate ornament above claws of lions' feet.

Lent to the Manchester Art Gallery, Art Treasures Exhibition (2007-8)

See Clive Wainwight, 'Models of Inspiration' in Country Life, June 9, 1988 pp 266-267 which discusses the acquisition of Soulages' collection.

Probably early 19th century based on a late 16th century chair

Italian chairs made from vase-shaped boards of wood have long been known as sgabelli, a term ultimately derived from the word scabellum (Latin for 'stool'). They were often carved with fantastic monsters and grotesques, like this example which forms part of a set that belonged to the Steno family of Venice, whose emblem, a star, is emblazoned on the crest. According to John Hungerford Pollen, writing in 1874, the Steno "house remained furnished in the old way down to modern times", but the chairs in this set are almost certainly copies of an untraced earlier example. They were later acquired by Jules Soulages (1803 - 1856), a lawyer from Toulouse, whose collection was bought piecemeal by this museum, after it had been exhibited at Marlborough House between December 1856 and January 1857.

5690-1859