Chair thumbnail 1
Chair thumbnail 2
+13
images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On display at Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire

Chair

1690-1710 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

On loan to Newstead Abbey, Nottingham


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
carved and turned oak
Brief description
Chair, turned and carved oak, England, 1c1700(?), RF: 75/2401
Physical description
Chair; the back consists of two arched rails, escalloped below and carved with flat floral scrolls, and uprights similarly carved; the arches, each surmounted by acorn finials; the front, back, and four side stretchers are plain. The front legs are turned, whislt the bars together with the back legs are plain. The seat is modern.
Dimensions
  • Height: 115.3cm
  • Width: 45.1cm
Object history
Purchased in 1892 for £6.0s.6d from the sale of Bottesford Manor near Brigg (lot 206). See also 529-1892 (lot 205) w/o 47/1018. See Nominal File for E. Peacock (MA/1/P647).

Said to have come from Manby Hall, Lincolnshire. Afterwards in the collection of Mr. Edward Peacock, of Bottesford Manor, near Brigg, Lincolnshire.

Previously on loan to Ford Green Hall, Stoke (1952 - 1967), and Brewhouse Yard Museum, Nottingham, 1968 - 2002.
Historical context
See Peter Brears, 'Leeds and West Yorkshire Carved Oak Furniture of the Seventeenth Century', in 'Regional Furniture' vol. XXXIII 2019, pp. 1-90 (specifically p.67-8 'Yorkshire Chairs').

Brears suggests that many of the 'chairs' with arched back rails (without arms and panelled backs), commonly listed in sets of four to twelve in Leeds and West Yorkshire inventories and usually supplied with cushions, are the type nowadays referred to as 'Yorkshire chairs'. A rare description of '6 chairs with Arched backs' in the inventory of Henry Hubank/Ewbank of Wortley, Leeds, administered on 11 March 1698/9 certainly refers to chairs of this type. Of the type more generally Brears writes, 'They show such diversity of design in their carving that they must have been made throughout West Yorkshire, yet hardly any have a sound localised provenance.' An identical pair remain in Halifax parish church, rebuilt but with the original back rails 'with the usual combination of scolls and cross hatching. Each one has a sprouting head, a Christian device to avert evil, as might be expected in the Calder Valley.' A group of 6 chairs survive at Shibden Hall, first described in an inventory of 1835.
Production
This type of chair is peculiar to Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
Subject depicted
Summary
On loan to Newstead Abbey, Nottingham
Bibliographic reference
H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture & Woodwork, (London 1930)
Collection
Accession number
530-1892

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Record createdFebruary 13, 2007
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