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Armchair

ca. 1805 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This armchair was part of a large set owned by Lord Stuart de Rothesay when he was British ambassador in Paris in the 1820s. The chairs were made by the firm of Jacob-Desmalter, who was the best-known supplier of fashionable furniture in Paris at the time. It is possible, though not certain, that they may have been made for Maréchal Ney, one of Napoleon's military leader, known in France as 'the bravest of the brave'. In 1805, after his marriage Napoleon helped him to buy a house in Paris, the Hôtel de Saisseval. Ney furnished it lavishly in the Empire style. In 1815 Ney was executed by the allies who had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and his house and its contents were soon after sold up. We know that Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who greatly admired the bravery of Ney, did buy some pieces at or after the sale, but we are not sure whether this set were amongst his purchases. Jacob-Desmalter often produced chairs with sphinx supporters and it is possible that these come from another house.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Beech, carved and gilded, the upholstery covered with rayon damask
Brief description
Armchair of gilded beech with replacement upholstery in green satin woven with wreaths. The front legs are carved at the base with paws and at the top with winged sphinx busts supporting the arms.
Physical description
Armchair of gilded beech with replacement upholstery in green satin wove with wreaths. The armchairs have tapering, square-sectioned legs, the front legs carved at the base with paw feet and at the top with winged sphinx busts supporting the arms. The front face of the arm support sections are additionally carved with a pendant anthemion below the sphinx bust. The back legs continue as the stiles of the back which scroll backwards at the top. The front faces are carved with with two flutes, which continue across the lower rail of the back to complete the framing. The seat rail shows raised fillets along the top and base, the recessed centre carved with spaced quatrefoils. The arms are rectangular in section and taper back from the front to joints with the back uprights that are carved as lotus blossoms. Above the sphinx head arm supports the upper surface of the arms are carved with a roundel. Elongated padded arm rests are set on the top of the arms. The structural upholstery of the seat shows a hard upper edge (in the style of upholstery termed 'à tablette') but the upholstery has been renewed. The webbing is uncoloured and open set in the English fashion. The upholstery is outlined in gimp.
Dimensions
  • Height: 92.5cm
  • Width: 60.5cm
  • Depth: 60cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Shows traces of similar labels to those found on the inside back rail of W.7A-1987 (Label)
Gallery label
ARMCHAIR W.7a-1987 'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900' The label, which makes it clear that this chair is one of a set of sixteen, is dated 'Paris le 20 Avril 1816'. A second label is inscribed 'Sir Charles Stuart KB' with his arms, for the later Lord Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845), who had been appointed ambassador to Paris a year earlier. The upholstery is modern, although the colour reflects the original. From the Bettine Lady Abingdon Collection(1987-2006)
Credit line
Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole, from the collection of Bettine, Lady Abingdon
Object history
One of a large number of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the Empire period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779--1845). The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815--1824), the earlier furnishings during his second embassy (1828--30). The Empire furnishings may have been intended for a London house. He acquired 4 Carlton House Terrace, where improvements were carried out from 1827 to 1831, and he moved in in 1834. Older furnishings were more probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was remodelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830 to 1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the house in Carlton House Terrace was let, and the family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly at that time -- or in 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death -- that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe.
Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1867 by his younger daughter Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818--1891), who maintained Highcliffe Castle. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857--1934). When his younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon, in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949, but retained the present group of furniture and some other pieces. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived for much of the time with her close friends Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985, and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986, and in accordance with her will the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum, and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed.

These armchairs are a simpler (unstamped) version of the design of W.3a&b-1987 and W.5a&b-1987. As all three groups carry the same paper label referring to a set of 16, they were clearly treated as one set as early as 1816, when they were in the possession of Sir Charles Stuart. The similarity of elements of these armchairs to many other sets of seat furniture supplied to Jacob Freres and Jacob-Desmalter makes identification from inventories and accounts particularly difficult. The motifs were widely used by the firm of Jacob from c. 1800, both for mahogany chairs and for giltwood. These are close to a set of seat furniture now at Malmaison, in the Salon de Compagnie, originally supplied for Saint Cloud.
Production
This armchair and its pair (W.7A-1987) are attributed to Jacob-Desmalter because of their close similarity to four armchairs (W.3A&B-1987 and W5A&B-1987) which come from the same set and carry the stamp of Jacob Desmalter
Summary
This armchair was part of a large set owned by Lord Stuart de Rothesay when he was British ambassador in Paris in the 1820s. The chairs were made by the firm of Jacob-Desmalter, who was the best-known supplier of fashionable furniture in Paris at the time. It is possible, though not certain, that they may have been made for Maréchal Ney, one of Napoleon's military leader, known in France as 'the bravest of the brave'. In 1805, after his marriage Napoleon helped him to buy a house in Paris, the Hôtel de Saisseval. Ney furnished it lavishly in the Empire style. In 1815 Ney was executed by the allies who had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and his house and its contents were soon after sold up. We know that Lord Stuart de Rothesay, who greatly admired the bravery of Ney, did buy some pieces at or after the sale, but we are not sure whether this set were amongst his purchases. Jacob-Desmalter often produced chairs with sphinx supporters and it is possible that these come from another house.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Sarah Medlam, The Bettine Lady Abingdon Collection. The Bequest of Mrs T.R.P. Hole. A Handbook. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996 (ISBN 1-85177 179 4), p. 53
Collection
Accession number
W.7A-1987

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Record createdOctober 21, 2008
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