Armchair of gilded wood, with oval back, now upholstered in green velvet. English, 1775-1780

Armchair of gilded wood, with oval back and serpentine-fronted seat, the out-curving arms on down-curved supports, the front legs fluted and carved with neo-classical foliage, above gadrooned, oval feet, the back legs are undecorated but raked. The seat rail is carved with vertical ribbing, the blocks above the legs with rectangular, floral paterae; the arm supports are carved with guilloche ornament and the back with formal leaf ornament. The back and seat are upholstered in green velvet, replacing canvas-work embroidery with diaper pattern of flowers in colours on light ground.

Purchased, together with its pair (CIRC.318-1919) from Messrs Harris & Sons, 44 New Oxford Street in July 1919 for £40 the pair (See Nominal File: MA/1/H857). At the time the pair of chairs were covered with needlework and H. Clifford Smith, then Curator in the Furniture Department noted in an internal Museum memorandum"The pair of Adam chairs are of particular interest from the fact that they are covered with contemporary needlework. We have scarcely any English gilt furniture and an upholstered chair of the Adam period would be useful to chair-makers and others".
The purchase for the pair was supported by the Keeper of Furniture Oliver Bracket, who described them as English and of a type not represented in the Museum. The second chair was assigned to the Circulation Department and was given their accession number Circ.318-1919.The history of the chairs prior to Moss Harris is unknown.

The chairs are of very high quality and are close in design to a set of six armchairs made for Inverary Castle in about 1775-1778 by the workshop of John Linnell (1729-1796), as illustrated in Helena Hayward and Pat Kirkham, William and John Linnell, Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers, London: Studio Vista/Christie’s, 1980), vol II, fig. 90, p. 46 and discussed in vol. I, pp. 126-128. The Linnell firm supplied furniture to Inverary between 1773 and 1780, as verified by payments, but no detailed bills survive. The Inverary chairs are similar to the V&A chairs in form, although the arms are carved with fluting rather than guilloche ornament and there are differences in the carving on the blocks at the top of the legs. The 16 chairs and 8 settees made for the Saloon at Kedleston in about 1780, and also thought to have been provided by Linnell, are also close in design to the V&A chairs, but with flat-fronted seats.

Nothing is known for certain of the history of the V&A chairs but two other chairs of the same pattern were sold by Sotheby’s, Olympia, 8 October 2002, lot 111 (‘The Contents of Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire. Removed for sale by order of the executors of the late Mary Fry, née Fane’). These are said to have been inherited from Sarah Rawnsley who bought them in 1939 from the Oldfield family of The Lodge, South Warnborough, Hampshire. Nothing is known of the earlier history of the chairs.

In the same catalogue, a cream-painted armchair with strong Linnell characteristics was sold as lot 277. No history was recorded for this chair.

Intriguingly, Fulbeck is connected with a number of houses where the furniture maker John Linnell (1729-1796) is known or thought to have worked (Osterley Park, Middlesex, Middleton Park, Oxfordshire and Upton Park, Warwickshire). Although this line of enquiry seems to have nothing to do with the history of the V&A chairs it is worth laying out here to avoid any later confusion. In 1782 John, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759-1841) of Apethorpe married Sarah Anne Child (1764-1793), daughter and heiress of Robert Child MP (1739-1782) of Osterley Park, Middlesex, after an elopement to Gretna Green. Although Lady Westmorland was disinherited, the considerable wealth of the Childs was inherited by her eldest daughter Sarah Sophia Fane (1785-1867), who married George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773-1859). This may have brought pieces from Osterley to both Middleton and Apethorpe in due course. In 1784 the Hon. Henry Fane (1739-1802), second son of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (1701-1771) was resident at Fulbeck and created an elegant new dining room in the neo-classical style, with a bedroom and dressing room above. There were sales at Fulbeck in the 1880s and in 1893 and the house itself was sold, but bought back into the family by W.D.Fane. At almost the same time there were sales at Apethorpe (1887 and 1893) and pieces were bought there for Fulbeck. When Apethorpe was sold in 1904, the remaining contents passed to the Fanes of Fulbeck Hall.

In the period after World War I the V&A was particularly keen to acquire chairs to provide a 'time-line' of styles. Although the history of this chair was unknown, it was acquired as a good model that 'would be useful to chair-makers and others'. At that time, providing models for furniture makers was a high priority and the museum acquired excellent examples for young makers to study. The chair is very similar to designs by John Linell for Inverary Castle and Kedleston and may have come from his workshop, although at present no firm link to his workshop has yet been established.

W.35-1919