Armchair
1690-1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This chair is made of carved boxwood and has recently been reupholstered with domed padding and elaborate fringes, to re-create the appearance it might have had when it was new. The acanthus ornament on the wood is similar to Italian-influenced designs by Johann Indau (Romanische Ziehrathen, published before1685) and Mathias Echter (Fogliami romani, published in1679) but it is also similar to the exuberantly carved furniture made in Venice at about this time by Andrea Brustolon (1662 - 1732). This chair once belonged to Charles Somers, 3rd Earl Somers, (1819 - 1883) of Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. Somers was a great collector of Italian Art.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Carved boxwood, walnut, the upholstery modern, with silk covers |
| Brief description | An armchair of carved boxwood, the legs, arms and stretchers all elaborately carved, the crimson silk velvet upholstery modern. Venetian |
| Physical description | Armchair with upholstered seat and back, all the exposed areas of frame are fully (including interior faces) and elaborately carved with overlapping, deeply undercut (and sometimes pierced) acanthus leaves and auricular ornament. The front feet are distinctively carved with a nose-like form iwth two nostrils above a bifurcating pair of rounded and pitted knobs. The rectangular, gently arched back is slightly raked above the seat. Areas intended to be covered by upholstery are plain e.g. the back seat rail. Construction All the carved areas of boxwood; walnut seat and rails of the back (identified by Darrah, 1976). The arms are mortised onto the single piece front uprights. The carving is worked in the solid, with built up sections on the front feet and 'shoulders' of the arms. Condition Minor losses to the carving eg back stretcher. The seat reinforced with screwed corner blocks. Reupholstered with an open webbing base. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Style | |
| Gallery label |
|
| Object history | Purchased from Christopher Gibbs, 118 Bond Street, London W1 £1,200 (RF 73/1026) ‘Armchair, Venetian, about 1700’. This chair once belonged to Charles Somers, 3rd Earl Somers, (1819 - 1883) of Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. Somers was a great collector of Italian Art. During reupholstery, a cardboard tag was found in the chair (dept. file) inscribed '2121 C17th Venetian. Collection Lord Somers £2,200' A pair(?) to the chair was offered by Christies (London), 10/12/1992, lot 327 estim. £4,000-6,000; with modern upholstery of floral pattern, blue cut-velvet, re-railed and repair to the front stretcher.�� On acquisition the chair was upholstered in a non-original, pink woven silk damask fabric, without fringes or braid (photos on dept. file), replacing a similar scheme with fringes and braid, in very worn condition (BW photos on dept. file). The chair was reupholstered to Thornton's instruction, using crimson velvet with red and gold fringe, in April/May 1977 by Heather Taylor (Gilbey). See her report with photos and samples in Red Upholstery box. (FDC 17/07/2006) The distinctive character of this chair lies in the highly ornamental carving of dense acanthus with auricular elements, a style particularly popular in Germany in the late 17th century. Although the ostentatiously carved furniture of Andrea Brustolon provides parallels for the chair, it usually incorporates extravagant figures (here lacking) among naturalistic flowers and leaves etc., and is therefore unlikely to have been produced in his workshop. (Based on a note by P.K. Thornton, 1976) |
| Historical context | |
| Summary | This chair is made of carved boxwood and has recently been reupholstered with domed padding and elaborate fringes, to re-create the appearance it might have had when it was new. The acanthus ornament on the wood is similar to Italian-influenced designs by Johann Indau (Romanische Ziehrathen, published before1685) and Mathias Echter (Fogliami romani, published in1679) but it is also similar to the exuberantly carved furniture made in Venice at about this time by Andrea Brustolon (1662 - 1732). This chair once belonged to Charles Somers, 3rd Earl Somers, (1819 - 1883) of Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. Somers was a great collector of Italian Art. |
| Bibliographic reference | Peter Thornton, 'Fringe Benefits', in Connoisseur, Sept. 1977, p. no. [unrecorded]
In 1976 the Victoria and Albert Museum, London bought from Mr. Christopher Gibbs the armchair shown in the two illustrations. Mr. Gibbs had acquired it in the west of England in a tattered state; it had come from Eastnor Castle and its covering of silk damask edged with a wide braid was old but probably not original. He had the chair stripped and re-upholstered in a straightforward manner, and the photograph above left was subsequently used to advertise the chair in the art-press.
The Victoria and Albert was interested in the chair but could not decide on its provenance. Was it Venetian or was it South German? One school of thought held that the lively acanthus decoration, carved in boxwood, might have been based on the engraved Romanische Ziehraten of Johann Indau or the suite of Fogliarni Romane by Mathias Echter — both late seventeenth century. Another considered it to be an expression of the Venetian Baroque style of carving of which Andrea Brustolon is at present the most famous exponent. In the end the Museum decided it was indeed the latter and ought to date from c. 1700. It was, however, realised that its appearance might be considerably changed by affixing padding of a more correct contour, and by covering the padding more plausibly and decorating the whole with the right kind of trimming. Red velvet was purchased and a scalloped fringe characteristic of much Venetian upholstery of the period was reproduced by Messrs. G. T. Turner.
The result is to be seen in the second illustration and the difference that the correct form of upholstery has made to this chair will be apparent to all. Much depends on the contour of the padding (at that period domed, with no sharp edges) but even more is owed to the rich trimming which was the key-note of most late seventeenth-century upholstery of the more elaborate kind.
The work was carried out by Mrs. Heather Gilbey, a young upholstress who completed the certificate course at the London College of Furniture not all that long ago. I happened to be acting as an independent examiner at the end of the course and was impressed by the interest she showed in the history of upholstery. She did not know much about it (how do you find out? It is not easy!) but she clearly had the right approach. Eventually the Victoria and Albert engaged her to collaborate over the task of stripping out various ancient chairs which still bore fragments of old upholstery. She undertakes such tasks in our office where we can follow each stage of the dismantling. Everything is recorded; samples are kept of each layer discovered (including the different types of linen, webbing, curled hair, tacks), and each phase is photographed. The Department has learned a great deal from this exercise — well over a dozen chairs have been thus dismantled.
Re-upholstering the seat-furniture after it has been stripped out is quite a different exercise. Sometimes the Museum entrusts this to ordinary high-class commercial upholsterers but we find that, having mostly been trained in the high traditions of Victorian upholstery, where firmness in the padding and rigid edges are the norm, and careful planning of materials and buttoning are a paramount consideration, they find it difficult to adjust their techniques to conform with the earlier traditions (which required less skill), so that the final appearance is usually not plausible as a reproduction of a seventeenth-century or even an eighteenth-century form. Having an upholsterer working alongside, one who is genuinely interested in achieving the right effect and is able to make the mental leap required to adopt less sophisticated techniques, has proved far more satisfactory and we regard the Venetian chair shown here as an excellent example of such fruitful collaboration between a craftswoman on the one hand and the Museum's academic staff on the other.
Mrs. Gilbey at present has the advantage over colleagues in her profession for, even in the relatively short time she has worked with us, she has had the opportunity of studying more specimens of ancient and largely documented upholstery than any one else hitherto. But there is no reason why other craftsmen with a similar bent should not seek to follow in her footsteps. The actual work is well within the skills of the best commercial upholsterers but a rather special attitude of mind is required in order to execute such work successfully.
While I certainly have no wish to see Mrs. Gilbey's present primacy in this field undermined, I do however hope that more upholsterers will soon take a greater interest in the reproduction of a more authentic type of historic upholstery. After all, upholstery constituted a striking feature of much seat-furniture in the past. Collectors and dealers pay a great deal of attention to the wooden parts; does not the upholstery deserve at least as much care — especially when it so radically affects the actual shape of the chair, as in the case of this Venetian example?
Signs that things are changing are to be found, however. Last winter the Furniture History Society held a whole day's symposium on historic upholstery and the Society of Master Upholsterers has now twice invited one of my colleagues to address them on the subject. I regard this as a matter of considerable importance and hope to see the day when furniture-historians wax as enthusiastic about tufted fringes and shallow buttoning as they do today about patina of wood or the curve of a cabriole leg. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.6-1976 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | March 8, 2005 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest
