Stool thumbnail 1
Stool thumbnail 2
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images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On display at Oak House, West Bromwich

Stool

1550-1650 (made)
Place of origin
England (made)

On loan to Oak House Museum, West Bromwich


Object details

Categories
Furniture
Woodwork
Household Objects
Object type
Stool
Materials and techniques
Oak
Carving
Brief description
English, oak, 1500-50, oak, 75/2148
Physical description
Boarded oak stool. The seat board with moulded edges rests in deep slots cut into the two broad supports which have moulded edges (some losses) and ogee-shaped openings below. They are joined beneath the seat by two rails with undulating lower edges and nulled ends. Each rail has an incised stem and leaf ornament. The rails were originally c15.5cm deep but have lost the original moulded lower edge on one side. The seat board is fastened to the supports by 6 pegs and two added nails.

Dark varnish overall.
Dimensions
  • Height: 54cm (Note: Measured by NH Sept 2016)
  • Width: 56cm
  • Depth: 33cm (at widest point of one support)
Gallery label
Stool. Oak. English; mid 16th century. This small stool is of a typical late Gothic type.(1968)
Object history
Given by Mr Robert L. Mond F.S.A.
See RP 1916/2591, Nominal File MA/1/M2476. He had acquired the stool from the dealer J.D. Phillips, 166 Brompton Road, London SW7, specifically to donate it to the Museum.

Dating - although this type of stool and the ogee arch ornament seem to have been produced in England around 1500, the moulded edges, nulling and overall condition of this stool suggest that a date later in the 16th or well into the 17th is more likely.
Historical context
Comparable stools
'An Elizabethan Oak Boarded Stool Late 16th/Early 17th Century, Sotheby's Fine Furniture, London, 10 September 2007, p.79 (and Sothebys London 28/10/2008 no. 302
Sothebys London 28/10/2008 nos. 252

See also
Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture, The British Tradition (Woodbridge, 1979), p.261ff
Symonds, Furniture Making in 17th and 18th Century England, 1955, p.63ff figs. 95ff
Tobias Jellinek, Early British Chairs and Seats, 1500-1700 (Woodbridge, 2009), pl.236
Summary
On loan to Oak House Museum, West Bromwich
Bibliographic references
  • Cecinsky and Gribble, Early English Furniture & Woodwork, vol.2, 1922, p. 172 (The Development of the English Oak Chair), fig.217 'Early sixteenth century. This is a full expression of the manner and constructive methods of its time.'
  • H. Clifford Smith, Catalogue of English Furniture and Woodwork, Vol. 2 - Late Tudor and Early Stuart, London, 1930, no. 313, plate 54
  • Charles Tracy, English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork (London, 1988), cat. no. 326, p. 197. 'STOOL. The seat rests on two broad supports with buttressed edges and ogee-shaped openings below below the seat are two rails with ogee shaped mouldings (PL.126) Given By Mr Robert L. Mond, F.S.A. Oak. Early 16th century 55.8 x 55.8 x 33 cm Mus. No. W.65-1916'
Collection
Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Accession number
W.65-1916

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O371930/stool/
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