Oak chair with scroll crest and board seat

Side chair (back stool), with slat back, scroll crest and panel seat, of pegged, mortice and tenon construction.

The back consists of four vertical bars (moulded on the front), united to the framework by a crest rail carved with C-scrolls, and a plain cross-piece below. The back uprights, each formed from a single piece of wood, slightly raked above the seat, terminate in an inward rolled scroll. The front legs and stretcher are turned, with balusters (and a central ball on the stretcher). On each side are are two plain, rectangular stretchers, and on the back a similar, single, low stretcher. The solid seat board is sunk to take a cushion.

Modifications
Both back legs with replaced feet (held on plugged screws). Glued-in seat panel has split along the back edge. The front rail re-pegged. Underneath the seat new wooden battens have been screwed to the side rails to support the seat.

Purchased for £5 from from C H Marshall Esq., East Retford RF 4447/1893 (along with 66-1893 to 97-1893)
Displayed at Ham House from 1961-68
Loaned to Sulgrave Manor, near Banbury 1968-1978

The basic form of this chair is found from about 1650 onwards, but the design of the scroll crest suggests that it post-dates (and emulates) more fashionable walnut and caned chairs made from about 1700 (on dating, see Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, (Woodbridge, 2002), p.236)

By about 1650 relatively lightweight but stout chairs were becoming more common in English households, and were starting to replace stools for dining in more affluent homes. On this chair, the design of the scroll crest suggests that it post-dates (and emulates) more fashionable walnut and caned chairs made from about 1700. It would have been used with a separate seat cushion on the solid seat board.

This object is on loan to Sewerby Hall.

91-1893