Newel Post Finial
ca.1907,
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This object links Voysey’s furniture and woodwork designs with his practice as an architect, as well as encapsulating his sense of humour. Voysey occasionally designed carvings such as this to cap newel posts in the staircases of his buildings. Voysey was clearly fond of this carving – according to its later owner, the scholar-architect John Brandon-Jones, he used it as a hat stand.
The carving is almost identical to six finials which remain on the secondary staircase at Garden Corner, a house on Chelsea Embankment for whose owner, the businessman and MP Emslie Horniman (1863–1932), Voysey remodelled the interior in 1906–7. Voysey had a photograph of a similar finial taken together with a perpetual calendar and ashtray, by the photographer Herbet Koester, c.1907 (photograph in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects). Voysey inscribed the reverse of the photograph: ‘Newel Post for an M.P. / Mr. Looking fourways’ - perhaps a wry political comment.
The carving is almost identical to six finials which remain on the secondary staircase at Garden Corner, a house on Chelsea Embankment for whose owner, the businessman and MP Emslie Horniman (1863–1932), Voysey remodelled the interior in 1906–7. Voysey had a photograph of a similar finial taken together with a perpetual calendar and ashtray, by the photographer Herbet Koester, c.1907 (photograph in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects). Voysey inscribed the reverse of the photograph: ‘Newel Post for an M.P. / Mr. Looking fourways’ - perhaps a wry political comment.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Oak, carved |
| Brief description | Top of an oak newel post, each side carved with a caricature of a man with a flattened nose, c.1907 |
| Physical description | An oak newel post finial carved as a caricature of a man's head, one on each facet, wearing a hat |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014 |
| Summary | This object links Voysey’s furniture and woodwork designs with his practice as an architect, as well as encapsulating his sense of humour. Voysey occasionally designed carvings such as this to cap newel posts in the staircases of his buildings. Voysey was clearly fond of this carving – according to its later owner, the scholar-architect John Brandon-Jones, he used it as a hat stand. The carving is almost identical to six finials which remain on the secondary staircase at Garden Corner, a house on Chelsea Embankment for whose owner, the businessman and MP Emslie Horniman (1863–1932), Voysey remodelled the interior in 1906–7. Voysey had a photograph of a similar finial taken together with a perpetual calendar and ashtray, by the photographer Herbet Koester, c.1907 (photograph in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects). Voysey inscribed the reverse of the photograph: ‘Newel Post for an M.P. / Mr. Looking fourways’ - perhaps a wry political comment. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.16-2014 |
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| Record created | January 24, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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