Armchair, carved walnut, with vase splat; the seat upholstered in needlework; made in Great Britain, 1725-1735

A walnut bended-back chair with vase-shaped splat, dished and hook-ended arms, cabriole front legs and turned and raked back legs; the seat covered in 18th-century pastoral needlework (which is not original to this chair).

The beech seat rails are tenoned to the front legs and back stiles and strengthened with four open braces, keyed in place. The four ears at the front legs are of solid walnut. The turned back stretcher is probably dowelled to the back stiles, while the right stretcher is tenoned and pegged to the front and back legs. Originally there was a matching stretcher on the left side, with a cross-stretcher tenoned and pegged to the two side stretchers, but the cross-stretcher and left stretcher are now missing. The walnut-veneered beech splat is joined by bare-faced tenons to the top rail and to the shoe, the shoe being tenoned to the stiles, and the stiles tenoned and pegged to the top rail. The arm-supports are tenoned and pegged to the arm-rests and joined by plugged screws (one each) to the seat rails; they appear to be rebated inside to sit on the rail. The arm-rests are likewise rebated to sit around the back stile, to which they are nailed from the outside.

The seat cover is worked with what appear to be a seated shepherdess and shepherd, another figure standing to the right, among trees, accompanied by a sheep (possibly) and a dog, all in a cartouche within wide strapwork borders.

The filed photograph of the chair, presumably taken at the time of its acquisition, shows it already lacking the two missing stretchers.

Purchase from Mr. H. Kyte, 23, West Street, Brighton

This armchair is of the 'bended-back' type characteristic of the 1720s--30s, with the profile of the back curved to accommodate the human form. These were also known as 'India-back' chairs, because the type was consciously adapted from Chinese chairs of the Ming and early Ching periods. (Europeans then had very vague ideas about the geography of Asia.) This borrowing is puzzling, because that type of Chinese chair was not systematically exported to Europe, but presumably a few were brought back by traders as curiosities and inspired chairmakers. The curvilinear arms, the cabriole legs and the waisted H-stretchers (now broken) were also designed to suit this sinuous style.

1589-1901